Its a weird development. Strange that they have built a house with side bit (looks like its that side bit you'll be renting to me) rather than two houses that could easily fit. Maybe it was a planning permission thing.

The estate agent looks as legit as estate agents can be, they have a physical office going off Google.

Looks like there might be a story behind it and that might explain willingness to forgo a deposit.

I dont think it would hurt to enquire. Dont hand over any money to anybody without contracts, that goes for any property.

Its not a property you would build to rent so something has happened along the way. I suspect they couldn't rent it out as one but are making cash off the main house so just topping up with the flat.

Looking at The Buraq Estates website, the entire property appears to be on the rental market, divided up into five flats.
I've never heard of a zero deposit option, so yeah, I'd be wary there's going to be hidden costs as an alternative.

The no deposit stuff is probably fine if you're happy with the rent and the liability.  Previously of course your deposit is protected in a scheme and the landlord can't touch it, and any damages that need making right after your tenancy that are funded from it can go through the scheme's arbitration and so on.  So really good protection for the tenant; they can't just demand £1000 to replace wear and tear items or put a lick of paint on it.

With no deposit, that money the landlord previously couldn't touch is rolled into your rent; so if you stay for longer than a year, the landlord's immediately in profit there.  Plus, when you leave, you don't have a deposit protection scheme helping protect you from a dodgy landlord demanding £45 to fill in every pinprick hole in the wall from a drawing pin etc.

Read the contract VERY carefully about what increase in rent there is to avoid a deposit, and what happens if there's any dispute about monies owed at the end of the tenancy.

LivDiv wrote:

Its not a property you would build to rent so something has happened along the way. I suspect they couldn't rent it out as one but are making cash off the main house so just topping up with the flat.

Looking at Google maps, it's a refurb of an existing building which appears to have been a hotel/guesthouse.

The no deposit thing is standard option in Switzerland, had never heard of it in the UK

I haven't heard of zero deposit before. But it looks like they increase the deposit amount they charge on the back end. So eg charging you two months rent at the end instead of one month upfront. They can also pass that onto a debt collection agency if you don't pay (or there's a dispute). Which won't be a risk if you've already laid money down. 

I'd avoid it. The landlords interested in that sort of thing probably aren't the type to make a fair assessment of the condition of the property at the end. Not that there's many of them about anyway from my experience. I went through a period of moving between rental houses every 12 months for about 8-9 years. They always try and claw back as much as they can, disputing the initial condition of the property, coming up with damage that wasn't there when I left etc. The estate agents always side with the landlord as that's the relationship they're more interested in maintaining.

From the brochure for the flat on the Buraq Estates website...
Looks unfinished to my eyes...


...and the listing on the Buraq site does seem to state there will be a deposit. Hmmmm...

I caught thieving letting agents out once.

Before moving out of a flat, I passed all the info along to a colleague who wanted to move into it. So I handed the letting agent and landlord a new tenant, ready to move in same day, without them doing any work whatsoever. Saved them a fortune and a load of hassle. 

You’d think they’d be grateful, right? No. They refused to return any of my deposit, claiming the entire flat had to be repainted and deep-cleaned.

My mate moved in, and found it had not been painted. Nor cleaned.

So we complained, pointing out their blatant lies, and got the entire deposit back with a profuse apology about how ”our systems failed and we erroneously recorded the property as repainted” …

Dark Soldier wrote:

Seems like a fuck around kinda thing and deposit should be the way.

If you visit the flat and like it anyway, you could tell them you’ll take it but only if you can do a proper, legal, deposit and they reduce the monthly accordingly. Negotiate. Like a boss.

So yeah, by all means go and view it, but bear in mind there might not actually be a finished flat behind every door. I'm damn sure they won't be in a hurry to fess up to that.

They are using a mix of the same and different images for 1 beds at the same place (bathroom being the most obvious).
Definitely worth a look but the whole thing seems a bit slapdash.
Theres a chance its "Oh yeah sorry that was the wrong info its actually this" bullshit.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=POSTCODE%5E1004458&insId=1&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&sortByPriceDescending=&_includeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnishType=&houseFlatShare=

Yeah seeing them already listing it for investors or outright buying yo above has the alarm bells going. Defo seems they ran out of cash mid refurb in which case the rent they're asking is a little steep right now. Fuck knows in amenities, water pressure etc either all this.

It's feeling like a solid no right now but I'm that intrigued I'm gonna go view and listen to their spiel.

They may not  have been able to extend the mortgage until the work was done.

May be crippled paying a bridging loan and looking for tenants to take the sting out of it.

Aye a look into their website and it's all 7/8/9 bedroom renovations etc at decent prices. Think this may be a punt in the bin and explains why it's been on market so long as it's not a student-heavy area.