Renting our house out

[ali_alic]

we are due to rent our house out (part furnished). It will be for �750 per month plus bills. What is the norm as regards deposit and paying up front? Is it 2 months rent at first then monthly plus a deposit or just a month in advance plus deposit. And what size deposit would you suggest. I know there are no hard and fast rules to this, just want to know if ABers have experience of this and what they would suggest.
Thanks

[Miss-taken]

I've rented loads of houses and its always been the same - ones months rent in advance and one months rent as deposit

Hope that helps

[drestie]

When I was renting, the deposit was a month and a half's rent.

When I broke the lease early, the penalty was one month's rent, deducted from the security deposit (the terms were in the lease).

Then they took more out of what was left for various repairs.

[ali_alic]

Thank you both for your input. I was initially going for a months rent in advance and �800 deposit, so not far off then!! Thank you both again

[Im a BusyBee]

ive been a landlady with 3 houses for 5 years and my agent that i use for finding tennants always takes 6 weeks rent for deposit and then a month in advance

[cascarelli]

6 weeks rent as deposit plus payment of rent in advance.

The reason you take 6 weeks is to try and avoid tenants not paying the last months rent and telling you to keep the deposit in lieu. You then don't have anything to hold against any damage done by the tenant.

Going back to drestie's comment, it's actually an unfair term to charge a 'penalty' for breaking the lease i.e. leaving the tenancy early. The outgoing tenant would be liable for any rent until a new tenant is found but the LL must mitigate the loses (i.e. make evry effort to find a replacement tenant as soon as possible). You can't charge a penalty though.

[drestie]

I live in the USA though, so maybe the laws are different?

It is clearly spelled out in my lease, so maybe that's how they get away with it?