Idk if they have it any rougher that when I first rented 34 years ago. I think people just have faster access to scams thus it becomes scarier because the information is presented to you more readily and more often. Oh, some of the things in some of my former homes, they'd make yer toes curl.
Anyway, make her aware of this:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housingadvice/tenancydeposits/holdingdeposits
I actually thought it was 10 days, get her to google that more. Maybe it changed.
She must pay a week's rent to secure the rental whilst references etc are checked.
She should insist on getting a receipt for that holding deposit, and on that form it should say by which date the lease must have to be signed by. She must find it acceptable to her timeline. This does not have to be the tenancy start date.
She IS entitled to ask to see a copy of the lease BEFORE she puts down a holding deposit and if they refuse, they're breaking the law. If they say 'oh but we don't have it ready yet' she must say 'so send me the standard AST that you use to review please.'
She must be aware that if she agrees to any changes, she should review the entire lease again. I've had agents slip completely unreasonable terms in between v1 and v2 of a lease.
She IS then entitled to back out of it AND get her holding deposit back if there are unreasonable terms in the lease, which can get complicated, so:
- As a general rule, to be upheld in law, terms need to be fair to both parties; LL's write an awful lot of shit in leases that they think the tenant will think they have to abide by because it's in a lease, but, when pushed in court, they don't have a leg to stand on
An example of not reasonable to both parties:
- Being responsible for gardening of a 2 acre plot when renting a 1 bed flat with no space for tools
- The landlord inspecting every 6 weeks
- Refusing to put a break clause in a 2 year lease
- A rent review at 6 months (which is literally illegal)
- Insisting the tenant pay to have a 300 year old, 40 metre, SHARED cobbled/stone drive professionally cleaned at the end of the tenancy; the bloody thing looked like it was straight out of a Dickens book
Some of these things I have walked away from before agreeing. Some of these things I should have just said 'whatever' to, and 'good luck proving that's reasonable in court' at the end of the tenancy.
Finally, if all she can find is crap, there's a law coming in at the end of the year whereby she can give 2 months notice even if she's signed up for 12. So if all that's out there is not great, she should be quite confident that she'll probs be able to get out of it come February/March at the latest.
The Independent Landlord has an extensive blog and videos on all the changes that will come.
Feel free to bump this thread and tag me, or send me a DM. If you tag or DM me, I'll get an email.
I've seen all their tricks and would be happy to help.