Deposit v Rent in advance

Tenancy Deposits

In light of the superstrike case I have been looking at TDS.

To be honest when the scheme came in I had just sacked my agent and had 8 properties that I was just learning to manage. The schemes seemed like hassle, so I have always just took 1 months rent up front, and have had very few problems. Any bad experiences would not have been much different had I had a deposit. Also I work in a very deprived area, high LHA and unemployment. So asking my target market for much more then 4 weeks rent is a non starter.

So given the case I just want to check am I still ok on my ASTs to state "nil deposit, 4 weeks rent in advance paid".

I have had a major clampdown this month, for me, and had 4 S21s issued with on possession order requested. My total arrears have got a bit silly. So really I want to know if anybody feels my s21 rights could be affected by just taking the advance and avoiding the protecting admin.