does anyone know about being a guarantor for a student???

molly22

hi

my son started uni last september, 2013
he is in Halls.

he has now decided that come sep 2014 he wants to share a house with 7 others, they have found a property and he has paid a deposit of £150, just before xmas.

he now tells me he needs to pay £259 by next friday and needs a cheque from me as guarantor for £359 post dated for june 2014.

im perplexed to say the least.
also he says they cant move in until september, even though they are expected to pay rent from july 2014!

can you offer me any advice regarding this please?

thanks
molly

BitterAndTwisted

He can write his own post-dated cheque!



DO NOT sign up as a guarantor if he's on a joint-and-several agreement or you could be agreeing to pay the rent on the whole property for the whole length of the agreement (or longer) should one or all of the other tenants decide to move out or not pay their rent


He's got a bloody cheek to drop this on you as I daresay neither you nor he have done much research into quite how serious an undertaking being a guarantor is. SIGN NOTHING until at least you understand it.

00ec25

Most student contracts run until July for obvious reasons, not all start in July, but it is not uncommon that some do and having to pay a "retainer" or "rent" over the summer period for those but not being "allowed" to take up occupation until September is not unusual, although obviously you would prefer it otherwise. He needs to check his tenancy agreement carefully to see if there is anyway at all he can move in before Sept (if he wants to of course!).

as for guarantor then you are handing over a signed blank check for as long as your son's contract (or occupation - whichever is longer) lasts meaning:
either - son is on a joint and several tenancy agreement where he rents the whole property and is liable for the whole rent. The fact there are 7 occupants who split the rent between themselves in practice does not alter your legal position as guarantor, you are liable to pay any shortfall on the rent whether it is your son or any of the other 6 who have not paid. You are financially wide open. This is a much more common situation than...

or - son has a tenancy agreement covering a specific room in the property at a rent for that room only. As guarantor you are liable for that rent only so financial exposure is at least related only to your flesh and blood

Note your guarantee has to be signed as a deed (ie it needs to be witnessed) otherwise it is invalid. This page is a reasonable summary of guarantees (from the LL's point of view!)
http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/05/08/tenancy-agreements-31-days-of-tips-day-8-guarantees/

here is an example of what could happen if the s hits the f
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?46007-Please-help-Deed-of-Guarantee

bouicca21

It is common for student lets to run July to July. If there is a high demand for student lets then a deposit to secure the place in advance is also required. You need of course to know where and how the deposit is held.

As for being a guarantor, again it is common for a parent/guardian to be asked to do this, but follow bitter and twisted's advice. Make sure that you guarantee his portion of the rent only, do not sign anything that makes you guarantor for the lot.

Also do what you can to check out the landlord. Ask the existing tenants. Check with the housing advisors at the uni. Check whether it needs to be registered as an HMO and whether it is.

Make sure they know and understand that checking the inventory on moving in is important. Get them to take digital pictures of every room so that they can prove what marks/scuffs/dirt already existed when they took the place over.

dimbo61

Hi I am a guarantor for my son at university in Liverpool.
I am also a Landlord and have a student property. I advertised the property with the local university housing office where I am an accredited Landlord.
When students viewed my property the existing tenants were in the house to answer questions.
Most viewing take ten/fifteen minutes and many students make a decision in that time !
If interested I email a blank copy of the AST , addendum agreement, DPS SCHEME information and deed of guarantor form.
I ask that students forward this email to parents to read and have a copy of the AST.
I ask that parents are guarantor for there child only.!!!!
It is a requirement of our lender that we have guarantors as students have little if any credit history so credit checks are pointless.
A deposit of 4/5 and even 6weeks rent is standard.
The landlord must protect the FULL deposit amount within 30 days even if they only receive part of the deposit ( save that info for the end of the tenancy if you need to )
Tenancy agreements tend to run 1July to 30June each student year with half rent over summer.July and August £359?
If your son is paying full rent he is entitled to live in the property.
It can be difficult finding a decent large student property in the right area at the right rent. The good one's go quickly.
If you compare the rent he is paying in halls to the rent for his room in the 8 bed house !
Can you check out the property online or ask to see photos .
Any chance you could view the property when you take your son back to university?
The Landlord is renting a property worth what £250/350,000 and wants to protect his investment. Students fall out with each other but hopefully a bigger mixed ?group will work together as adults to look after themselves and the property they are renting.
I would ask for a copy of the AST before signing. Did they find the house via a letting agent or via the university housing office?

dimbo61

£359 is one months rent ? So £414 is the deposit of five weeks rent ?
£82.50 a week rent ! Does that include any bills ?
You need to take lots of photos of your sons room when he moves in. Note any damage or problems if they are given an Inventory to sign.
Write a letter with proof of posting pointing out any defects or damage when checking out the house ( do not leave the students to do this ) keep a copy.
I now have a video inventory done as a landlord so no problems.
Report any problems straight away. In writing to the LL/LA
Getting a house together is part of growing up but make sure he does not take on one of the big bills just in case

silvercar

All standard procedure for students renting.

If you refuse to act as guarantor for your student child, chances are they won't find a landlord prepared to take them on. The only options then available to them would be to remain in Halls of residence (private or university owned) or to wait until September for a grotty property that a desperate landlord hasn't been able to rent out earlier.

southoftheriver

If he's paying full rent from July then he's entitled to live there from then. Make sure you check that out.

spacey2012

Any Guarantor deed needs to be read by a legal expert before you sign and bullet pointed, some make you "jointly or severally liable"
In other words, you pay the lot, every penny.

It is the latest scam and nets rouge landlords a small fortune each year.

Guest101

Have u signed or are u being asked to sign a deed? If not then it's a LL who doesn't know what he's talking about. Worrying, as what else does he not know?

Anyway what others have said is also true regarding u could end up liable for the whole rent.

Now then there's two types of summer rental periods. Tenancy starts July, LL says they can't move in til sept but pay the rent still. This is wrong, they can move in and no-one else who still be there.

Or they pay a summer retainer, this is common, but should be significantly smaller than the full rent.

Google HMO's or check out some other threads here.

princeofpounds

Firstly, I'll just say that this kind of thing is pretty normal these days. There is immense pressure on young people, and students especially, to find reasonable housing at a reasonable price. It's not just a case of rising rents, there has also been an explosion in various side-demands and conditions from LLs and LAs. Sometimes, if you do things the 'right' way, you will simply not get a property, and certainly not a nice one with your friends.

There are also increasing amount of panic in the timetable, it's quite normal to have to search for a place 6-9 months in advance.

Having said that, asking for a guarantor for a student is not, in itself, a bad thing to request. It is pretty sensible from the point of view of the LL. The trick is in the structure of the guarantor agreement. If you sign one, it should not be open-ended, and it should not guarantee the whole joint and several tenancy as people have pointed out. You have to watch out for guarantees for rent and guarantees for damage etc.

This isn't a 'scam' as such - the LL doesn't earn extra money from getting one guarantor to guarantee all the tenants. But it massively increases their security at what can be an unacceptable burden on one guarantor if they are the one that gets chased.

Many LLs don't properly understand how these agreements work, and many guarantors and tenants don't either. So that is why the systems leads to so many misunderstandings. A lot of guarantor agreements end up unenforceable, whereas others can be punitive.

The payment of retainers, which hold the property over summer but don't permit occuption, is also very common for students. Often, but not always, the summer months are charged at half rent, although this has changed a bit as pressures for student housing have risen. Traditionally the landlord used this time for maintenance (i.e. thin coats of paint over persistent mould, bodge fixes etc!), and the half-rent was a compromise for not permitting occupation.

In reality again most of these retainer agreements are very poorly designed and many are probably unenforceable, technically breached, etc. But most people end up just going along with it anyway.