The Government is to make it unlawful for landlords and agents to ask prospective tenants for more than one months' rent in advance, housing minister Matthew Pennycook (main image) has confirmed.

Answering a question from fellow Labour MP Simon Opher (pictured) in parliament yesterday, Pennycook said that he wanted to see the practice outlawed and therefore is looking into ways of achieving that via an amendment to the Renters’ Rights Bill going through parliament.

“The government recognise that demands for extortionate rent in advance place a considerable financial strain on tenants and can exclude certain groups from renting altogether,” he said.

“We are very clear that the practice of landlords demanding large amounts of rent in advance must be prohibited.”

The minister also said that although the new periodic tenancies that will replace the current fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies would in theory prevent rent being charged in advance, “we believe there is a strong case for putting this matter beyond doubt,” he said.

What neither Pennycook or Opher appear to have considered is that ‘rent in advance’ is one of the key ways that landlords and agents insure themselves against prospective tenants who fail referencing, particularly foreign students who have no renting or financial track record in the UK.

Rent up front

A recent survey by tenants’ rights group Acorn found that half of renters it canvassed reported being asked to pay a month’s rent in advance while 23% reported a request for six months' rent in advance.

Landlords have only limited options when tenants are from high risk groups such as those who have built up rent arrears in the past or who have CCJs against them and several months' rent in advance is one of the most commonly-used approaches. Ironically, Labour’s proposed changes to evictions law, which will make it more expensive and time-consuming to evict troublesome tenants, will make it even more difficult for high-risk tenants to gain tenancies.