Paying 6 months upfront

Peachy_1

My son has been told that  paying six months rent in advance would invalidate the rent protection which comes with other forms of protection. 
I am not sure exactly what his means.  Can the letting agents refuse to accept six months rent in advance? 

greatcrested

No idea what this means either. You may be misquoting the landlord/agent, or the LL/agent may be talking carp!

But yes, of course they can refuse to accept 6 months in advance if they wish.

Assuming son does not pass credit or financial viability checks (why else offer 6 months rent?), and the LL refuses that, try offering to act as guarantor.

Peachy_1

Thanks for your reply 😁 No not misquoting, that was in an email they sent, he earns more than enough to rent, however he failed the credit check because of one unpaid parking ticket. Can’t be guarantor as A) my partner and I are not married and b) we don’t earn enough to cover the extortionate amount of rent that is charged these days.  I find is unbelievable that a LL would turn down nearly £8000 in rent in advance. 

Slithery

Most LL's are wary of large amounts of cash upfront as it's a technique commonly used by people renting grow houses and brothels.

steampowered

Remember that letting agents merely represent the landlord. 

The landlord may choose to accept or reject you. The only thing the landlord can't do is discriminate against you based on a protected characteristic such as race or gender. A landlord is perfectly entitled to reject you because they don't think you're creditworthy; they don't want to accept 6 months rent up front; they don't like the colour of your hair; or anything else.

It sounds like your friend failed the credit check because of an outstanding CCJ. Has the CCJ been settled now? An outstanding court judgment is not a great look even if it was for a parking ticket. Many landlords would be happy to be sensible about an old satisfied CCJ, but not all.

greatcrested

A parking ticket is insignificant. We've all had them.

An unpaid parking ticket? Well, we've all delayed paying for a while.

But the only way it would show up in a credit report would be if a court ordered for it to be paid and the dodgy parker defied the court and still did not pay. Now that sort of potential tenant rings alarm bells.......

davidmcn

What's going to happen after the six months rent has run out? The tenant isn't necessarily going to be any more creditworthy, plus the landlord has the problem of the tenant already being in situ and possibly not paying rent.