To say no to this?

[BlackMini]

I'm moving into a house share with a group of people who are a fair bit younger than me. We are all moving at the same time. I am a bit of a latecomer to the house so things have happened before I arrived.

Basically, the rent per person is around the £350 mark per person. There's a fair few of us in the house. Before I arrived on the scene they agreed to pay £100 to secure the house and to show commitment. This amounts to a fair whack of money. This would be taken off of the first months rent.

The landlord has now decided that we may do a bunk and disappear as £100 isn't a lot of money to lose, leaving him with no tenants for the (student) year. He wants a BACs transfer, to his personal account, of a months rent.

AIBU to say no to this? I would feel uncomfortable but maybe do it to a business account, but a personal one?! What's to stop him pocketing the money and denying it?

I have rented a fair few houses and always only paid a holding fee. Trust works both ways. Unfortunately, my housemates are all a bit younger and dont hear the alarm bells that I do and are probably thinking I'm going to be the awkward housemate.

AIBU?

YADNBU

YABU not to agree to a month's rent as deposit but OTOH it is also U of the landlord to want it as cash in his pocket. It should be paid into a bonded equity scheme so that there is proper governance of its use or return in due course.

Euphemia, that's the thing. He wants the money and we havn't even signed the lease yet or even seen the lease. We won't be moving in for 2 months! He wants the money purely to keep the house off the market for us.

I'd be happy to pay the deposit of a months rent, to be paid to the DPS. But that's not what he is asking. It's all very strange. I've never had this before. Usually you pay the holding fee then pay the deposit when you pick the keys up.

Needs to be paid into a recognised tenants deposit scheme. Illegal otherwise

Alarm bells! Definitely don't do it. If he's dodgy enough not to use the DPS, what else is wrong with his property?

I've told the other housemates I'm not prepared to do it. I will pay a holding fee, complete with receipt from a legitimate business, and will sign a lease. That will have to be enough for him.

The money needs to be protected, but as a landlord, you have the option of paying it into a deposit scheme, or keeping the actual cash, but paying an insurance premium to a different deposit scheme.

To be honest, the changes in this area of law mean that if your landlord hasn't protected your deposit in one of these two ways (and given you a certificate to this effect) within 30 days of your paying it, then it actually works in your favour. He can't use a S21 notice to evict you, and he can be ordered to pay you 3 x the amount of the deposit.

I wouldn't take a property off the market for anything less than 6 week's rent (by way of deposit) and a month's rent upfront. These would be paid into my personal bank account. What else would you suggest I did with it?

Duckworth it needs to go into a separate account under the DPS.

No, it doesn't

Have a read here

Do you work for the FOS? I'd expect you to be rather better informed if you do...

That came out a bit sharper than I intended foslady my apologies