Renting property from yr2 on!

Madmonk

Embarrasingly both sets of parents! I know it's shocking but it happened a long time ago and their are some very well know bankrupts!!!!!

jrrowleyws

You'll probabily find that anything written on the piece of paper is fine and that no checks are performed. Br or not, I doubt the EA would even know!

silvercar

jrrowleyws wrote: »

You'll probabily find that anything written on the piece of paper is fine and that no checks are performed. Br or not, I doubt the EA would even know!

I agree.

I had a chat with the letting agent that my son has found next years house through. I asked what happens when parents can't or won't act as guarantors. She told me that it is rare to find a student landlord who will let to people without a guarantor. They tell the students that they need the guarantor forms signed in order to secure the property or they will be left either to find an unlet property in September, when a landlord will be desperate and more accommodating or some dodgy property now which the letting agents are almost embarrassed to have on their books.

She said peer pressure usually sorts the problem. You get a group of say 6 students wanting a house, all the paper work is done except for one student's guarantor form. When she tells them the landlord will readvertise the place unless the form is in, it amazingly appears - all signed and complete. She says "amazingly" because the students are in one town, the parents in another and the form is returned within a day. The suggestion being that the students use their parents signature!

I did ask what happens when the reason is that the parent credit rating is poor. She said it wasn't crucuial to have excellent credit rating for all parents. If 4 out of 6 students produce decent credit rating then that would be enough. She said its the pressure from guarantor parents on their kids - that the kids know they have to keep the place decent (or incur the wrath of the parents) that a landlord is more interested in. I did wonder whether they even bother credit checking the parents. After all, if there is a problem they would have more people to chase, whatever the credit rating.

glider3560

One of my previous landlords checked both me and my parents out with a credit reference agency. I also worked for several financial services companies at the time (all short term through agencies), who all decided to do checks on me when I started. My credit rating couldn't have been very high at that time, with all those searches!

Although I've never had this since. Strangely, my current letting agents wanted a "character reference" from someone who'd known me for at least 2 years.

Absinthe_Fairy

I didn't have to have a guarantor when I rented a house as an undergrad, in fact I'd never heard of the concept of guarantors until I needed one for the flat I rented when I had a job.

Seems harsh to me that anyone should be put at a disadvantage because of somebody else's bad credit rating.