Tenant has disappeared owing thousands

mchale

bumpoowee wrote: »

Just because somebody doesn't want to be their guarantor proves nothing. Why would anybody else want to be liable for somebody elses expenses?

Guarantors should be a last resort for VERY dodgy tenants, you can always spot a cowboy landlord as they will always ask for guarantors regardless.

Thank you (even though you don't know me)

mlz1413

bumpoowee wrote: »

Just because somebody doesn't want to be their guarantor proves nothing. Why would anybody else want to be liable for somebody elses expenses?

Guarantors should be a last resort for VERY dodgy tenants, you can always spot a cowboy landlord as they will always ask for guarantors regardless.

WHAT:eek: !

My mum would happily guarantor something for me if needed because she knows I would never not pay and leave her debts. She probably can't be a G now as retired - but the prinicple remains.

Good landlords often ask for G so that they have extra contact address or ablility to find tenants that default or disappear. It is a very standard practise and nothing to do with cowboy LL.

bumpoowee

mlz1413 wrote: »

WHAT:eek: !

My mum would happily guarantor something for me if needed because she knows I would never not pay and leave her debts. She probably can't be a G now as retired - but the prinicple remains.

Good landlords often ask for G so that they have extra contact address or ablility to find tenants that default or disappear. It is a very standard practise and nothing to do with cowboy LL.

What if you lost your job and couldn't pay? Very few people can guarantee they will always be able to pay no matter what the circumstances. It is a risk that the guarantor has to take.

But do all LLs have guarantors for their mortgage payments? Do banks ask for guarantors when they provide credit cards? mobile phone contracts? How about the utility companies refuse to provide you gas/electricity or water unless somebody acts as your guarantor? They all stand to lose a similiar amount of money if the customer doesn't pay.

Asking for guarantors without a very good reason is incredibly insulting and degrading, and comes accross as a very slimy practice.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I think most people in full-time employment who are financially independent and are not students/ recent graduates would be pretty insulted to be asked for a guarantor, especially as it's implied that it'll be your parents.

Friends of mine in their mid-twenties sold their flat and rented a place (in a much cheaper area) for a while, to decide if living in there would be appropriate for one partner's new job. They just laughed at the LA when they were asked if one of their parents would be guarantor (after the usual credit checks).

mlz1413

bumpoowee wrote: »

What if you lost your job and couldn't pay? Very few people can guarantee they will always be able to pay no matter what the circumstances. It is a risk that the guarantor has to take.

But do all LLs have guarantors for their mortgage payments? Do banks ask for guarantors when they provide credit cards? mobile phone contracts? How about the utility companies refuse to provide you gas/electricity or water unless somebody acts as your guarantor? They all stand to lose a similiar amount of money if the customer doesn't pay.

Asking for guarantors without a very good reason is incredibly insulting and degrading, and comes accross as a very slimy practice.

Hopefully someone who lost their job would either give notice or if possible claim HBbut why should anyone fund them living in a place they cannot afford?

mortgage's are secured on the property and any decent LL would sell up long before affecting tenants.

c/c, mobile, utility companies treat everyone the same and LL/tenants/pensioners/students etc apply for services in the same way.

Sadly there are T's, LL's, home owners etc etc who don't pay their bills and don't treat people and co's right but that's life it's not always fair.

The reason a LL would take a guarantor is because the law is on the T's side and if they don't pay the LL will have to jump through hoops to get a T out. It's not a degrading, insulting or slimey thing it's business with often £10,000 or 100,000's at stake.

theartfullodger

Guarantors should be a last resort for VERY dodgy tenants, you can always spot a cowboy landlord as they will always ask for guarantors regardless.

Sigh! Thanks for the insult: You are clearly in the right. Any experience of letting to students?? Certainly my agent ALWAYS asks for guarantors (mummy/daddy/grannie usually) from ALL students, including quite posh ones, as well as 3 or 4 months rent in advance: in my experience they sign the forms...

The guarantor & the hot-line to the university lettings office seems to help ensure peace & harmony with the neighbours of my absolutely-not-dodgy tenants..

Cheers & best wishes to all, including those who disagree with me..

Lodger

Slinky

Primula wrote: »

Good Agents would be on top of it as soon as the first month was late so it might be worth thinking about?

Don't be so sure about the 'professional' agents. I had a tenant who forgot to renew their standing order payment after the initial 6 months lease. The first I knew about it was when the rent wasn't in my account on the due date, which was 15 days after it was supposed to be with the agent. It was only me saying where's my money that alerted the agent to the error.

A previous tenant did the oddest moonlight flit the agent had ever seen - moved out of the house with 99% of their furniture without telling anybody they were going, and put a cheque for the rent through the agent's door! He did eventually turn up about a month later and lived in the house for another month with just a bed, 2 old armchairs and a broken clothes rail with some ladies clothes on it (which was what my Dad and the agent found in the house after they went in to find out what was going on).

Sorry to wander off topic, but there are some odd folk about.

OP I hope you get it sorted.

Gorgeous_George

I had a similar situation though not as expensive.

I put the house right and found a new tenant. I considered my options and decided to do nothing more. I didn't have a forwarding address and couldn't be bothered. My tenants had other debts and I figured that I would way down the pecking order.

GG

Absinthe_Fairy

I completely agree with those of you who say that having to get a guarantor is insulting. My parents agree too - and we are all honest people who are good at managing our financial affairs.

I am a responsible adult with a full-time job and can pass a credit check no problem. I would never not pay the rent while I had the ability to pay it. It's degrading to suggest for no reason that I am somehow irresponsible.

If I was made redundant and couldn't pay my rent for genuine reasons, then why on earth should someone else be held responsible for it?

I would never dream of asking a friend or any family member other than my parents to act as guarantor: it puts them in an incredibly difficult position. No matter how responsible you are, something unexpected might always happen and no one wants to take on someone else's debt.

I would ask my parents to act as guarantor under certain circumstances (as I know if I was in trouble they would help me out as much as they could anyway, and I think you can ask your parents for more than you can ask anyone else, generally), but I would still resent being asked for one.

When I moved to my current place, the agency asked for a guarantor. I asked them why and they said that they asked all students, people on benefits and those starting new jobs for guarantors, but as the latter offered less risk (starting a new job was the position I was in) they would let me off having to have one (Although my mam after much grumbling had already filled the forms in, so she ended up acting as guarantor anyway! It was ridiculous, they asked for far too much information: my mam's bank details, NI number, they wanted a credit check done on her - and the tenancy was nothing to do with her!).

What about the people who simply don't have anyone to act as guarantor? What if their parents are dead, or in financial difficulty, or don't own their own homes, or are unemployed or retired? Why should they be penalised?

Jowo_2

bumpoowee wrote: »

Guarantors should be a last resort for VERY dodgy tenants, you can always spot a cowboy landlord as they will always ask for guarantors regardless.

I don't believe there is any link between a landlord requesting a guarantor and the quality of their management of the tenancy. Letting property is a business and providing a guarantor mitigates the risk.

It's not something to be taken as a personal insult, no more than some loan companies will only lend to homeowners and a car sales company only gives credit to those on a certain salary. It's just a condition or criteria.

In fact, it could be the case that 'accidental' or novice landlords, who are more likely to make mistakes through their poor knowledge of housing law, are least likely to be aware that it's good practice to ask for a guarantor. A guarantor is a full mode of protection - it is very easy for tenants to run up arrears and damage past the sum of the deposit and much harder to track them down for legal redress when they abscond.

It's a common practice for student and benefit claimant tenants because they are the most risky tenants, having the least income and more likely to get into arrears than working tenants as a group. I think its likely to become a more normal practice as time goes on for all groups.

I also think its telling when a tenant has home-owning and employed friends and relatives who will not expose themselves to any form of risk by acting as guarantor. If they are not prepared to take the risk, why should the landlord?