Rent in advance
Rent in advance is rent a tenant pays before the period it covers has begun. The most common example is taking the first month’s rent before the tenancy starts, but some landlords ask for several months upfront where they are worried about affordability, credit history or other risks.
Rent in advance can improve rental cashflow and reduce the immediate risk of rent arrears, but you must treat it correctly in law:
It is rent, not a deposit, if it is clearly allocated to specific future rental periods. Labelling or using it as security against general damage or arrears risks the whole sum being treated as an unprotected deposit.
You cannot use rent in advance to sidestep the statutory cap on tenancy deposits or the ban on most additional tenant fees. Under the Renters’ Rights Act those rules remain central.
Once rent in advance has been taken for a given period, you generally cannot demand that same rent again for that period, even if relations sour later in the tenancy.
Best practice is to set out in writing exactly which dates the advance covers, how ongoing payments will work, and to avoid using large advance-rent demands in a way that could be seen as unfair or exploitative, especially of more vulnerable renters.
