WA Rent in Advance Maximum: How Much a Landlord Can Require

The Two-Week Limit on Compulsory Rent in Advance

Under Section 28 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987, a landlord in Western Australia cannot require a tenant to pay more than two weeks' rent in advance before or at the start of a tenancy. This is a hard statutory cap — not a guideline, not a negotiating position.

A tenant can voluntarily choose to pay more than two weeks in advance. Some tenants prefer to pay monthly or quarterly for their own budgeting convenience. That is their choice. What you cannot do is make it a condition of the lease. Writing a clause that requires monthly prepayment, demanding three months upfront "for security," or declining an application because the tenant will not pay extra — all of these breach the Act.

How Rent in Advance Sits Alongside the Bond

The rent in advance and the security bond are separate statutory categories with separate caps. For a standard tenancy at $600 per week, the maximum compulsory upfront outlay breaks down:

The bond and the rent in advance serve different purposes. The bond is held in trust by the state Bond Administrator and can only be applied to unpaid rent, damage, or cleaning costs at the end of the tenancy through the formal release process. Rent in advance is the landlord's money from the start — it covers the first two weeks of occupancy.

Landlords sometimes conflate the two, treating the bond as a buffer against missed rent during the tenancy. It is not. The bond is held by the state, and you cannot access it until the tenancy ends and a release application is processed. Rent in advance is your working capital for the first fortnight.

What You Cannot Charge Upfront

Section 27 of the RTA is broader than most landlords realise. Beyond the rent in advance cap, it prohibits all of the following upfront charges:

• Application fees
• Administration or processing charges
• Key deposits
• Lease preparation fees
• Pre-paid cleaning charges
• Holding fees (except option fees under strict refund rules)

Re-labelling these charges under different names does not make them legal. Clauses that attempt to disguise extra upfront payments — "establishment fee," "property access deposit," "document preparation charge" — are void under the Act. The landlord faces prosecution and the tenant can recover the money.

Option fees are the narrow exception. If you charge an option fee during the application phase, it must be capped at the prescribed amount, fully applied toward the initial rent if the tenancy proceeds, and refunded within seven days if the application is declined.

Voluntary Advance Payments During the Tenancy

Once the tenancy is running, a tenant may offer to pay rent further in advance. A tenant who asks to switch from fortnightly to monthly payments is making a voluntary arrangement — you can accept it. What you cannot do is require it retroactively, penalise a tenant for reverting to fortnightly payments, or write lease terms that mandate advance payment beyond the two-week statutory limit.

This distinction matters because some landlords treat a tenant's voluntary monthly payment pattern as an obligation. If the tenant switches back to paying fortnightly, the landlord cannot use a breach notice to require payment further in advance than the statutory limit allows.

Getting the Upfront Calculation Right

For self-managing landlords collecting the bond and rent in advance without an agent, the safest approach is to calculate each component separately and document them clearly on the receipt:

1. Calculate the security bond (four weeks' rent, or negotiated amount if rent exceeds $1,200/week)
2. Add the pet bond if applicable ($350 maximum)
3. Add up to two weeks' rent as advance
4. Issue a single receipt that breaks out each component as a separate line item
5. Lodge the bond (security + pet) with the Bond Administrator within 14 days

The rent in advance portion is not lodged with the Bond Administrator — it goes directly to you as the first rental payment.

The Rental Bonds in Western Australia guide includes worked financial examples for standard, pet-approved, and high-rent properties, with a breakdown of every permitted upfront charge and the lodgement process for each component.

See more Western Australia guides →