T offers six months' rent in advance- suspicious?

[sunnygirl]

As a soon to be first time landlord am I right to be suspicious of a prospective tenant prepared to pay 6 months rent up front and a larger deposit with no obvious income? The tenant is not on housing benefit and is separated from her partner and in arrears on a mortgage. My gut reaction is something's not quite right.
Thanks

[Ericthelobster]

As a soon to be first time landlord am I right to be suspicious of a prospective tenant prepared to pay 6 months rent up front and a larger deposit with no obvious income? The tenant is not on housing benefit and is separated from her partner and in arrears on a mortgage. My gut reaction is something's not quite right.The obvious question to be asking is how does she intend to pay for the rent after month 6? What's she living on? Just because she happens to have a lump of cash available now to tempt you with now doesn't mean to say that you won't be lumbered with a non-paying tenant to evict in 6 months time.

And if she has all this spare cash, why is she in arrears with her mortgage?

[Bel]

Relatives may be helping her.

Ask directly where the money is coming from and see some proof eg savings book. Ask how she will fund it after 6 months..she may be entitled to housing benefit

[RupertB]

I agree with the above. Have to say we won't take anyone paying 6 months up front any more unless they have a guarantor as well. Had too many probs where after 6 months it was a struggle to get them to pay or they sat and waited to be evicted to get a council property. Just not worth the hassle as far as i'm concerned and after 6 years in the business.

Thanks

Paul

[sunnygirl]

Thanks to all of you, this is the third tenant an agent has found for me that dosn't quite ring true. Funny how all of the separated women bring their estranged partners to view the property, they are all of course 'lovely ladies'!

[Paragon]

There is a saying "When in doubt, say NO and you will be right 95% of the time." Don't know where the saying first came from, but we use it in the finance industry a lot and it works magically.

[domino]

Thanks to all of you, this is the third tenant an agent has found for me that dosn't quite ring true. Funny how all of the separated women bring their estranged partners to view the property, they are all of course 'lovely ladies'!

I fell prey of one of those 'lovely ladies' earlier this year, on Housing Benefit while in a house from Local Housing Association, ... with estranged husband! She agreed to have Housing Benefit paid directly into my account, etc.... only to 'realise' she was to be paid DIRECTLY, because tenancy was now with a private landlord! I believed her 'sad stories' of council messing her up with payments, etc... until I asked Council directly what the situation was! Turned out she had pocketed all her LHA money (150 per week!). Also alleged estranged husband has always lived there! Got them evicted a few weeks ago ... and somehow they managed to get a new council house! Rumour goes at present that her husband is now in Paris! ... and she is advertising on Gumtree again, looking for another property to rent from a private landlord! :) That is what's called a 'professional tenant!

[mind the gap]

I fell prey of one of those 'lovely ladies' earlier this year, on Housing Benefit while in a house from Local Housing Association, ... with estranged husband! She agreed to have Housing Benefit paid directly into my account, etc.... only to 'realise' she was to be paid DIRECTLY, because tenancy was now with a private landlord! I believed her 'sad stories' of council messing her up with payments, etc... until I asked Council directly what the situation was! Turned out she had pocketed all her LHA money (150 per week!). Also alleged estranged husband has always lived there! Got them evicted a few weeks ago ... and somehow they managed to get a new council house! Rumour goes at present that her husband is now in Paris! ... and she is advertising on Gumtree again, looking for another property to rent from a private landlord! That is what's called a 'professional tenant!
:confused:Where do people find the energy to lead such complicated lives? I'd be exhausted within 48 hours if I had to do all that.

[jeffrey]

For why anyone pays rent for six months in advance, see 'Cannabis factories': http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/search.php?searchid=1404263

[chappers2341]

Was just about to say that Jeffrey ,she might be nothing more than arental front for the real operators.
Be very wary

[ezylet.com]

As a soon to be first time landlord am I right to be suspicious of a prospective tenant prepared to pay 6 months rent up front and a larger deposit with no obvious income? The tenant is not on housing benefit and is separated from her partner and in arrears on a mortgage. My gut reaction is something's not quite right.
Thanks

Hi Sunnygirl

So did you find you're ideal tenant in the end?
Good luck

[dominic]

...but bear in mind that you may still have to pay your existing agent's fees even if Ezylet fins you a tenant.

Ezylet: you are treading a fine line and are bordering on advertising. I for one certainly do not want to see this site clogged up with casual plugs by agents for their service, particularly when every post (of a total of 6 by my count) refers back in some way to your product.

[Editor]

They have now been given their 2nd warning about unauthorised ads. This is the message we send which I think is clear enough:

You need permission to advertise, including when you put a link on your signature:

At LandlordZONE we make our money to maintain the free service through advertising, so we do not allow free ads on the forum - if we don't police this it just snowballs and before we know it, everyone is advertising their wares through their posts.

Topic Experts - those who devote their time to giving genuine answers to visitors questions are the only people we allow to advertise their services - sorry!

Our moderators are keen to keep these ads off the forum and actively police this activity.

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[jeffrey]

Good! Hope that it works.