Asked to be student's guarantor - advice please...

princeofpounds

if some kind of arrangement is not reached then your son may have no alternative but to go back into university run halls.

Haha oh dear... these days halls is usually only an option offered for first year students (although they can usually be obtained if in severe need). University accomodation for all went the way of the student grant and the dodo many years ago at most places (not all admittedly).

As the others have stated, you need to ensure that you don't have joint and several liability. You have no option but to negotiate, or come to some arrangement with the other guarantors.

silvercar

I've had the exact problem with my son. It is the norm that landlords will only let to students with a guarantor and the uni will only guarantee first year students a place in hall. It does make me wonder what students with no guarantor do?

jillymit

Update from my previous post as we appear to be in the same position as the OP.
We have had a reply from the landlord declining our guarantor agreement and asking us to sign their original but stating that they would not chase us for anything but DS share of the rent.
It looks like I'm going to have to ring the the uni for some advice and maybe get someone who knows what they are doing to look over this guarantor agreement to clarify exactly what we could be liable for.

Lokolo

I am a student.

This is a bad idea imo.

Some people I have lived with over the past 3 years made me realise students are so unorganised. One person volunteered to be incharge of bills (volunteered). We got our last gas elec bill in Jan, had to be made mid Jan. He paid it last week. (after I had paid him the money over a month before!).

Year before I had constant emails asking me to get X, Y and/or Z to pay their part of the rent.

But if the LL will only chase your son/daughter for their part of the rent then it should be ok.....

silvercar wrote: »

I've had the exact problem with my son. It is the norm that landlords will only let to students with a guarantor and the uni will only guarantee first year students a place in hall. It does make me wonder what students with no guarantor do?

I have lived in 3 separate places and have not needed one either time. (halls -> house in X -> house in Y)

jitters

I can still clearly picture my dad laughing at me when I asked my parents to sign a guarantor form

Ed_Jogg wrote:

We do have an alternative, and that is to pay the entire ten months' rent 'up front'.

This would be terrible. My experience of student digs (dives) was that the threat of witholding rent was the most effective means of motivating a LL to actually fix problems and faults to the house, i.e a broken boiler, leaking roof. If you pay upfront you will lose a 'bargaining tool'.

Often, students rush out of halls and into the first house they find with four walls, ignoring the 'little' things like damp, knackered CH and holes in the roof (again my experience ) If your DS and housemates can't work around the guarantor, finding a different house wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

HTH

Ed_Jogg

jillymit wrote: »

We have had a reply from the landlord declining our guarantor agreement and asking us to sign their original but stating that they would not chase us for anything but DS share of the rent.

Surely if you sign then you are agreeing the joint liability as before? Does this landlord statement over-ride the guarantor agreement? Our agreement specifically says that we would be jointly and severally liable.

If they are happy to accept a guarantee for just the son's rent (which seems fair), what is wrong with providing a guarantor's agreement that says just that?

LittleMissAspie

silvercar wrote: »

It is the norm that landlords will only let to students with a guarantor and the uni will only guarantee first year students a place in hall. It does make me wonder what students with no guarantor do?

Same here. We were in private student accommodation and had to have guarantors. Then we moved into a private rented flat and the letting agency made us have a guarantor for that too. By that time my dad was retired so I had no-one, and my boyfriend's dad was guarantor for both of us. We weren't even young, I was 26 and bf was 22. But no guarantor = no flat.

G_M

jillymit wrote: »

We have had a reply from the landlord declining our guarantor agreement and asking us to sign their original but stating that they would not chase us for anything but DS share of the rent.

Get him to put this statement in writing, witnessed, and with a further statement that it over-rides the guarantee given by (your name) dated xx/xx/xx. Otherwise it is is not worth the paper it is not written on!

Owain_Moneysaver

The problem is that DS' share of the rent can be easily ascertained (although if it's a share of the house then it could be the entire house if every other occupant leaves) but the share of other expenses (eg dilapidations) cannot be ascertained and he (and you) will still find yourself liable for the whole caboodle.

And a six-bedroomed house is a big caboodle to be liable for. A one or two bed flat would be a somewhat different matter, but with 5 others it is almost certain that at least one will drop out / fail / get pregnant / turn out to be a psycho / etc.

jillymit

Ed_Jogg wrote: »

Surely if you sign then you are agreeing the joint liability as before? Does this landlord statement over-ride the guarantor agreement? Our agreement specifically says that we would be jointly and severally liable.

If they are happy to accept a guarantee for just the son's rent (which seems fair), what is wrong with providing a guarantor's agreement that says just that?

The landlords statement was only in an email so I've no idea if this has any weight at all.
I have an appointment with a solicitor on Monday morning to cast a legal eye over it all and give me some advice.(£10 for half an hour)
I'm hoping I've got the wrong end of the stick and it's all ok but I'll have to wait and see.