The One-Month Cap on Rent in Advance

Asking for several months' rent up front used to be a way through a competitive letting, and a way around the rental bidding ban. From 1 May 2026 that route is closed for private assured tenancies in England. The rule is in sections 8 and 9 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and GOV.UK's landlord guidance calls it the pre-tenancy period.

This is general information, not legal advice, and it applies to private assured tenancies in England.

Before the agreement is signed

You must not ask for, encourage or accept rent before the landlord (or the agent) and the tenant have signed the tenancy agreement. A payment of rent in that window is a prohibited payment under the Tenant Fees Act. A holding deposit of up to one week's rent is a different payment, and it is still allowed.

After signing, before the tenancy starts

This gap is the pre-tenancy period. During it you can ask for the first rent, with a cap:

• If rent is paid monthly, the maximum is one month's rent.
• If rent is paid more often than monthly, for example weekly, the maximum is 28 days' rent.

You can't ask for more than that so that one applicant can outbid another with a larger lump sum. The bidding ban and this cap are meant to be read together.

Once the tenancy has started

Rent is due on the rent day in the agreement. A term that makes rent due in advance of the period it covers has no effect. The tenant can still choose to pay early. You can't require them to, and you can't write the tenancy so that several months fall due on day one.

Tenancies the cap does not cover

• Agreements signed before 1 May 2026, and rent in advance actually paid before that date.
• Social housing let by a private registered provider, and tenancies granted because the council owed a homelessness duty.

A tenancy the council has arranged because the applicant was legally homeless can also be asked for more than one month in the pre-tenancy period. That exception is narrow. It isn't a general rule for applicants who receive benefits. Refusing those applicants outright is covered separately in the rental discrimination rules.

Your records

Keep the date the agreement was signed, the tenancy start date, the rent period, and the date and amount of any rent taken before move-in. If those dates show rent taken before signature, or more than a month taken in the pre-tenancy period, the file won't help you. Rent increases after the tenancy has started are a different process: a Section 13 notice on Form 4A.

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