Can an estate agent ask for the balance of the first month's rent before the tenancy agreement is signed, and wwyd?

[nytryda]

DS is in 1st year uni and in a group of 6 trying to arrange a house share. He only knows 2 of them - the others are friends of friends.

In December they paid a holding deposit of 1 week's rent to secure a very good property. The official holding period passed before the agent reached out to them for any documents. Since then, the agent has emailed periodically with lists of outstanding documentation for reference checking. Two of the tenants that DS does not know well have been very slow to respond and at least one of them has complicated guarantor arrangements, so this process is ongoing. Needless to say, I am encouraging DS to try and push things along as best he can.

In the meantime, the agent has reached out to say the remainder of the first month's rent is due. My feeling is that the group should not pay this until the tenancy agreement is signed, as it will not have any protection without the contract. However, there is obviously a risk that the agent/landlord may pull out if their request is not met.

What are the prospective tenants' rights in this situation, and wwyd?

N.B. The tenancy starts in July.

Maybe this should be in the legal section?
I don’t know the rules but I would think just like you, no payment of rent until there is a signed contract. It is also only March for a tenancy in July, so it feels premature to be pressured like this by the estate agent. Maybe he gets a quarterly bonus based on the value of the rentals he has tenants locked into?

Tenancy agreement should be signed first. They should read is carefully and likely they are all jointly liable for the total rent should one of the tenants not pay.

I would say if you don't want to lose the house/room get it paid.

Unfortunately with rentals harder to come by the agents hold the cards. If another group comes along with their cheque books out while your son's group are still finding documents and deposits they could lose the house.

Get a receipt for the deposit.

I assume this deposit is only for 1 room? It might be that some do lose their rooms if they can't satisfy the agent so some of the 6 end up being the original group and some rooms let by the agent to other students.

As mentioned above find out if your child is jointly liable for rental of the whole house or only liable for their room so you know where you stand if someone leaves or doesn't pay.

Oh, they're jointly liable, and so are the guarantors, but only after the contracts are signed ... if they ever get signed. Right now, my biggest concern is that the contracts don't get signed and they lose not only the holding deposit (1 week's rent) but the balance of the first month's rent too.

From mid-April they also want the damage deposit, which is another month's rent.

Personally, I think that if the outstanding documents are not provided soon then the boys should be looking to get one or more replacement tenant(s). If the agent was threating a pull-out it might focus their minds, but they're not ... yet. So far, the reminders have been boiler plate rather than giving any sense of urgency ... that might change now they're asking for money rather than documents.