am I allowed to accept a tenant who PREPAY several months in advance?

[Mary Joe]

Hi All

I have a tenant who is self employed and she just started her business, since it is difficult to establish her income, she offers to prepay 3 month  in advance for a 1 year lease.   So she will put down 1st 3 months, last month and 1 month security in order to move in. 

Am I allowed to do that with a tenant? 

I know there are some regulations that say security deposit can be no more than 1 month, but not sure if there are other laws the regulate whether Landlord can accept prepayment of rent in FL. 

Thanks.

[Yishi Garrard]

Arizona allows this, but requires that you treat that prepayment as a liability until the income is earned. In other words, you can't count that money as yours until that month hits where you can apply that prepayment. For example, if the property got wiped out in a tornado, got foreclosed on, etc, and your tenant was forced to move out, you'd be liable to refund them any prepayments. Not sure if this differs in other states, but I'd assume it's a common rule.