ACORN: Rent up front October 2024: Poll results
ACORN asked people who had moved to a new private rented home in the last 3 years about their experience of landlords and letting agents asking for rent in advance. We also collected demographic data (including whether or not respondents are benefits claimants, excluding child benefit). We sent our poll to our supporters list - we deliberately didn’t say that the poll was concerning rent up front to ensure we didn’t skew the results.
Our poll titled ‘Private Renters Poll’ ran from Tuesday 1st October to Sunday 6th October 2024. We had 353 respondents who had moved within the last 3 years and the results below are based on their answers. (100 more answered but we discounted them as they hadn’t moved within the last 3 years.)
The results indicate that benefit claimants are being asked to pay multiple months rent in advance more often than those who don’t receive benefits. It also shows that they are more likely to be asked to pay a higher number of months in advance compared to those not in receipt of benefits.
Benefit claimants were almost twice as likely to be asked for more than 6 months up front and 3 times more likely to be asked for 12 months up front than people not claiming benefits.
Results:
% asked to pay >1 month’s rent up front
51.3% - of all respondents
54.1% - of all benefit recipients
46.7% - of everyone not in receipt of benefits
54.1% - of parents with a dependant child
% of respondents asked to pay ≥6 month’s rent up front
23% - of all respondents
42.3% - of all benefit recipients
28.7% - of everyone not in receipt of benefits
32.43% - of parents with a dependent child
% asked to pay 12 month’s rent up front
7.6% - of all respondents
18.8% - of all benefit recipients
6.1% - of everyone not in receipt of benefits
8.1% - of parents with a dependent child
Highest # of month’s rent asked for in advance (of those who have been asked to pay >1 month in advance)
Mean of everyone - 5.87 months
Mean of people on benefits - 7.22 months
Mean of people not in receipt of benefits - 4.95 months
Typical # of months rent asked for in advance (of those who have been asked to pay >1 month in advance)
Mean of everyone - 4.90 months
Mean of people on benefits - 6.51 months
Mean of people not in receipt of benefits - 3.98 months
Testimonies:
"I have been told by various letting agents that because I am in receipt of benefits (UC & PIP due to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome), that I will not pass their affordability checks (despite the housing element of UC covering the rent, and a history of over a decade of 100% on time rent payments) and therefore need to provide 12 months rent upfront in order to apply."
"asked me to pay 6 months up front because my salary wasn’t 3x the annual rent. had saved up for private surgery and had to hand over it all to the landlord as i’d already been homeless for a month and needed somewhere asap. still not managed to save that money back up for the surgery."
"Local people on lower incomes are being priced out of the rental market - especially if they're single - because people from London, on higher salaries, are able to offer a year's rent upfront, or even begin bidding wars."
What needs to change?
As part of campaigning around the Renters Rights Bill, ACORN is campaigning alongside other members of the Renters Reform Coalition, to cap the amount of rent that can be asked in advance to 1 month.
We are also calling for landlords and agents to only be able to request a guarantor if the prospective tenant’s income will not cover the rent, and if neither the tenant or landlord has insurance for non-payment of rent.