Letting Agent help

Omnitude

Hello,
I would be very grateful for advice. I needed a 7 week place to rent before moving back home.
I found a city studio with the letting agent. I was shown a cheaper room but opted for the more expensive rooms (I was shown pictures of how my studio should look but not identical).

I have now been emailed by them asking to pay £X admin fee and 2 months advance rental to 'reserve' my room and their bank details were provided in the email- Is this normal, it just felt a bit iffy. However, the letting agent seemed legitimate when viewing and there office was on the ground floor of the city apartment. Moreover, I haven't been shown any sort of tenancy agreement, I believe they mentioned this is completed online. Should I not sign/view this before paying?

In addition they have asked for the 1 months PCM rent to be paid in full before moving in and then also asked for a guarantor. As I am only staying for 7 weeks, if I pay 2 weeks + 1 pcm rent that is essentially my entire rent upfront so why is a guarantor still needed?

There is also no mention of a deposit protection scheme.

Sorry for the long query, I was just hoping to make sure I ask them the right questions and iron out any issues as it states payments are non refundable if I choose to no longer proceed

joshp1993

I work for a letting agent and we also do short term lets like this one - nothing sounds too out of the ordinary here.

Admin fee is to be expected with any agent, especially on short term lets as you get a lot of tenant turnover so have to do a lot of viewings etc.

I presume that the '2 months advance rental to reserve' is meant to say 2 weeks? Again, not unusual to have a holding fee, the landlord will be covered for a short period if you back out at the last minute.

Rent is always payable in advance so 1 month is normal, and the guarantor will be in case you decide to stay longer than the 7 weeks, or if you refuse to move out or cause damage (not to say that you will but it's to cover themselves).

There will be a deposit scheme mentioned in the tenancy agreement when you see it, you can always ask to get the agreement before paying, there's no reason they won't give it to you.