“They want six months upfront because I have no UK guarantor.”
Tenancy deposits and guarantors for international students
Short answer
A deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is below £50,000, or six weeks between £50,000 and £100,000. A holding deposit may not exceed one week’s rent. Being asked for more than that is not lawful.
The deposit itself is capped
Student rents sit far below the £50,000 threshold, so the five-week cap is almost always the one that applies. A separate holding deposit, taken while references are checked, is capped at one week’s rent.
Rent in advance is not the same thing
The cap applies to the deposit, not to rent paid in advance. International students without a UK guarantor are commonly asked for a term or a year of rent upfront, and that request is not itself unlawful. It is worth negotiating, and worth comparing against providers who accept a guarantor service instead.
Paying upfront does not help your visa
This is the expensive part. Rent paid in advance to a private landlord or a third-party halls operator does nothing to reduce the maintenance funds you must separately prove. The same money paid to your university would reduce that requirement, up to the cap in ST 12.4.
Where this answer stops
Official sources
Checked against the live sources on .
Refundable tenancy deposit
Fees you can charge as part of a tenancy →Accommodation offset
ST 12.4 →