It is not uncommon for landlords to request payment of multiple months' advance rent. For example, a landlord might request that 3 months' rent be paid up-front prior to the start of the tenancy; further rent would then not usually be payable until month 4.
However, it is more problematic for a landlord to continually ask tenants to pay a month's rent in-hand as a ‘buffer’ throughout the tenancy, and OpenRent's tenancy creation service does not support this tenancy structure. This is because there is a risk that the landlord could be construed as holding an unprotected deposit, whereas by law all funds that are to be held by the landlord as security for the tenancy must be protected under a government-approved scheme such as mydeposits. We do not recommend that landlords attempt to hold tenant funds as security without registering them in an approved scheme.
Rent in advance as a one-off up-front payment can be requested by the landlord, provided this is stated in the contract. The key difference here is that the rent in advance is being used simply to pay the rent, as opposed to the money being held as security for the tenants' obligations under the contract.
Information on this site is by way of general guidance only and may not apply in your particular circumstances. You should not act or refrain from acting upon information on this site without seeking independent legal advice.