Another rental guarantor problem

rufusdog52

My daughter moved house a month ago, she had a lot of problems with the agents.

They told her she would need a guarantor a few months before moving but when she said she couldn't find one they told her she could move in anyway as she was working full time. They also told her she would need to pay a months rent in advance plus an extra months rent as a deposit which she was fine with and found the money for. The day before she moved in she got an email from them which she didn't see until late in the evening due to us all being at a wedding which stated that the landlord had now decided that he wanted and extra months rent plus a £300 pet fee (she has two cats) which she would need to find by 12 o'clock next day if she still wanted to move in. As you can imagine, she had already packed everything up, the kid's beds were all taken apart and everything was ready for the removal van the next day. We scraped around amongst the family and managed to get this new amount together for her to move in and she signed the contract for a year.

Now she is in, the agents have told her that the landlord has decided he now wants a guarantor and unless she can find one she will have to move out at the end of the year and find somewhere else. She has no one who can be guarantor for her, I am not working so can't do it and there is no one else in the family who is able to do it either. She is getting herself in a right state now not knowing what to do. I know a year off is a while yet but she has three children and it is not going to be easy to find somewhere for them to live that is near to their schools and her work.

The landlord has told her he picked her out of all the would be tenants as she was working full time, he said he told the agents all along he wanted a guarantor, not for the rent but because his last tenants had caused damage to the property.

Is there anything she can do about this or is it just a case of having to move again when the year is up?

BitterAndTwisted

If the landlord has decided that he's not willing to keep her on without a guarantor there is nothing to be done but to make plans to move out.

It seems to me that this landlord would be foolish to go through the expense of the eviction process and have to pay the agent yet another tenant-finding fee if she manages to pay the rent on time through the next year of the tenancy. Perhaps that might be a persuasive argument once the AST is drawing to an end.

However, if the landlord is adamant that he want to remove her from the property, move she will, but only after the landlord/agent have issued her with a valid S21 Notice,

Is there a break-clause in her tenancy agreement?

Has her deposit been registered in one of the approved schemes if the property is in England or Wales?

rufusdog52

The deposit is registered, I dont know if there is a break clause in her agreement.

Thanks for the answer so quick xx

BitterAndTwisted

If her landlord is determined to get her out of the property she absolutely needs to read her tenancy agreement very, very closely indeed. She could be facing moving in six month's time or less.

[Deleted User]

rufusdog52 wrote: »

not for the rent but because his last tenants had caused damage to the property.

This seems like an easy problem to solve: offer to allow the landlord to do inspections once a month (with reasonable notice). Possible damage to the property doesn't make too much sense as that is what a deposit is for, if the deposit isn't enough to cover potential damage the landlord should have asked for a bigger deposit. The inspections wouldn't mean much but it would show good faith on your daughters behalf and go some of the way to give the landlord confidence.

Personally if I had a landlord that was being so unreasonable (remember, landlord <-> tenant is a business arrangement, they should both be gaining from the arrangement) I would not bother with bending over backwards to please the landlord (who is at fault for allowing an agent to allow a tenant to enter without meeting the supposed requirements) and look at moving out as soon as the tenancy is over, your daughter can only do so much and from what you've said it sounds like she has been more than reasonable so far...

As an aside I can't imagine a landlord will evict her as soon as he can (in 1 year) if she does keep the property in good condition...

rufusdog52

Thank you, I will send her a link to this post so she can have a read when she gets in from work. She is not a member of the site like I am but might well join up x

G_M

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

If her landlord is determined to get her out of the property she absolutely needs to read her tenancy agreement very, very closely indeed. She could be facing moving in six month's time or less.

How? LL cannot start possession process within 1st 6months.

And by the sound of it, there is a 12 months tenancy, so OP is secure for 12 months (unless Break Clause).

And frankly, no LL will evict a tenant after 12 months of regular rent payment. Once tenant has proved that reliable it would be mad to evict and have the costs of empty property, find new tenant etc....

edit - monthly inspections will solve nothing, and just be intrusive. Reason LL wants a guarantor is because of the risk of rent default, not damage.