The use of ‘rent in advance’ is widespread among landlords in the UK, the leader of a coalition of tenants’ rights groups has claimed

The claim has been made by Renters’ Reform Coalition director Tom Darling, whose organisation represents 21 different bodies including Shelter, Generation Rent, the London Renters Union and the charitable arms of both The Nationwide building society and Lloyds Bank.

Writing in The Times over the weekend, Darling says recent claims by the National Residential Landlords Association that the ban will backfire on the poorest tenants by making access to privately rented properties more difficult, were wrong.

The NRLA’s chief executive Ben Beadle had pointed out that while rent in advance is not widespread as a practice, it is a key way for some tenants with poor credit or rent payment histories to secure tenancies.

Affordability

But Darling rejects this, saying: “The argument goes that landlords need to minimise risk, and when a tenant can’t pass standard affordability referencing checks, or provide a guarantor, the option to reduce their risk is by securing a large initial rent payment.

“This, we are told, is a last resort to help upstanding landlords ensure the “poorest tenants” can access housing.

“I’m afraid this bears little resemblance to how landlords’ demands for rent upfront are functioning in practice.”

He claims that paying rent in advance is a ‘common experience’ and that research by Shelter bears his argument out, as it found that 800,000 had been rejected by landlords for tenancies because they were high risk but couldn’t afford to pay rent in advance.