Is this a red flag or a reasonable request from lodger?

[blanketsnuggler]

We rent out our Annex, and have just advertised for a new lodger. Decided on a nice lady who said the deposit/rent would not be a problem. (Good English, but not her first language).
Messaged her today to send over the agreement paperwork and bank details etc. She messaged back asking if it would be ok to send part of the deposit now, and the rest with the first rent payment in 4 weeks time.

Disclaimer - I have autism and am TERRIBLE at reading people! Sorry if this is an obvious question. Thanks

Please don't accept her , it sounds as if she gets away with this , worse will follow .

absolutely a red flag. There are plenty of people looking for rentals, do not take her

It's not a separate annexe. There are shared areas.

In any case it's all sorted and this woman will not be moving in.

Glad it’s sorted OP. Well done on standing firm

I’d say no, but I have previously been landlord to multiple properties with tenants not lodgers, so I’m not clear on the differences in the law.
id Imagine you won’t be short of alternatives when you tell her you’ve changed your mind about letting to her.

NO.

and read up on the new rental laws and discover if she will be a tenant or a lodger...

Are you new to Mumsnet?

Don’t agree to her request! The whole point of a deposit is to protect you from any future problems. Without it, you are unprotected. Don’t do it.

Just say, 'No. Our agreement was for the deposit to be paid in full in advance. If that is not possible, then you will need to look for alternative accommodation.'

Lodgers (unlike tenants) only need one week's notice, so if she does start messing around with payment, you could easily move on.

I don’t what OP going to say in response but my thoughts are: we over-think everything. We think that what we are asking is obvious to everyone else and we are asking a stupid question.
Therefore we might apologise first for asking for an answer to what everyone else considers an obvious question.

No. Everyone knows you pay the deposit upfront. If she doesn’t have it and is unable to get credit to borrow the amount, that’s telling you that she is not good with money.

Cancel the whole thing. Messing about like this right from the start is a massive red flag. And don’t be afraid to make that clear - you can explain that if she’s not even able to make the first payment in a timely manner then why should you trust that future payments will be on time as contracted.

When you are talking about a lodger there needs to be trust. She’s blown it. Anyone sensible would not be silly enough to ask such a thing so early on. You’d quietly borrow the money from elsewhere and pay that back.

Sorry just saw that she bowed out. Bullet dodged eh.

If there initial issues walk away and find someone else.

You know when there is a fairly short thread, the OP has only posted five times and there are still people who haven’t read those five posts (well, they read the first one, they just didn’t bother with the other four) is there anything we can do? Can we club together and send them to someplace with no internet access? Get them to join the navy and get them placed on permanent submarine duty?

@NoCommentingFromNowOn
I've tried to be as clear as I can. I get it now that I shouldn't have used the word Annex in my OP.

That doesn’t change the fact that posters didn’t bother to read your posts though. I’ve seen threads where OP has posted 50 times, I still read all of them before I give my well thought out and not hysterical opinion.

OP. I'm not sure if this has already been suggested but Shelter has an excellent information resource for both landlords and tenants (and lodgers), might be worth a look through before the next renter turns up.

100% red flag. She won't be paying you the rest of the deposit amd/or rent in 4 weeks. Get rid now while you can

I mean, I don’t know why you’re being a bit shirty with me - I was trying to help. And it’s a bit daft not to read all of the OP’s comments before replying 🤷‍♀️

Good - I think you've dodged a curveball with this applicant.

Its clear it was a lodger, but there are so many pitfalls when being any sort of landlord I agree you really have to be confident about what you are doing, otherwise you’ll end up in a pickle.

Red flag. Full deposit should be paid before she can move in.

Well - also you could have read all her many, many, many posts, even if it took you a good minute and a half?

Should be a months rent as a deposit and a month's rent in advance. I would say no.

Ill chip in £10 to the cause