Urgent help please re renting

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Could someone who knows about renting please tell me what's normal these days?
Have had our "offer accepted" - ie the asking price rent, have signed a good faith letter, paid some fees etc. But have been told we only sign the actual agreement on the day the tenancy starts.
This really worries me because it means we could make all our practical arrangements based on that and have no real security that the tenancy is guaranteed to start.
What's making me more paranoid is that they are not showing it as let agreed on their website.
What can I do? surely I could ask to sign the tenancy agreement now but dated for our startdate.
Help!

I was thrown by this when we negotiated our rent especially as we were moving across the country. I spoke to the letting agent and asked them to pre-date and sign the agreement, which they did. It is nerve wracking, but I believe standard.

this was the case both times we rented a flat.
we paid a holding deposit to the agency and agreed on a starting date for the rental contract after the agend phoned the LL.
two weeks later (agreed start date), we handed over deposit and first months rent, signed the contract and were handed the keys.
so pretty normal and sounds ok. good for you that you have a letter stating the "offer accepted".

What a load of nonsense. Why any landlord would agree to that is beyond me. He must be thinking the same. He takes the property off the market, agrees to rent to you, and then you back out.

Tenancy Agreements should be sent out immediately, dated to start on the day you agreed.

They should be returned by both parties and held on file until the agreed date. Then you should transfer the money 48 hours in advance so that it is all in place on the day you want to move in.

And make sure you have signed independent inventories, to protect your deposit.

No thats BS, you can sign in advance for the tenacy to start on a particular day (does that make sense?)

That sounds like exactly what happened to my sister. She found an apartment, didn't sign any thing as it was with the same letting agent was due to move in on the friday and got a call on the tuesday saying someone else had moved in.

Turns out someelse was willing to pay £100 more for said apartment.

Tell them to let you sign a contract or you will be looking for something else.

we have been struck by this too, in our recent moves.

you sort loads out - pay deposits, holding fees, arrange the removals firm, etc, but have no Tenancy Agreement until the day the tenancy stats.

so no actual guarantee that the property is "yours" to move into.

really bizarre, andnot at all how we operate when renting out our 2 properties - Rental agreements are out as soon as the deposits are in, so to speak.

Oh blimey, this is a minefield! So we book the removals lorry, organise school places etc etc and have zero certainty about the whole thing.

I would like to offer to sign now and pay the deposit and first months rent now to secure it - could I suggest that do you think?

Yes you can suggest that.

I run a property management company and it was what all my landlords do.

There is no reason why you cannot do it. It is more security for the landlord and madness to do it any other way.

Phone the agent now and tell them that is what you want to do, for exactly the reason you state. Say you cannot get a school place without proof you live in the area and that proof needs to be a signed tenancy agreement.

I have had exactly that with tenants in one of my own properties.