Guaranteeing a student tenancy agreement

Cosimo1964

My son is one of a group of six students who have taken out an Assured Short-hold Tenancy Agreement on a house for next year.


I have been asked to stand as guarantor for him in return for a tenancy being granted. The wording of the guarantee sounds quite "heavy" ... indemnify you <the landlord> against any default in payment of rent, mesne profits, damages for use & occupation, damages for disrepair, other damages and costs ....


Can anyone advise me if this kind of guarantee is quite normal?


The landlord claims to be an MLAS accredited landlord and the tenancy agreement is approved by the National Landlord Association.

F1F93

Cosimo1964 wrote: »

My son is one of a group of six students who have taken out an Assured Short-hold Tenancy Agreement on a house for next year.


I have been asked to stand as guarantor for him in return for a tenancy being granted. The wording of the guarantee sounds quite "heavy" ... indemnify you <the landlord> against any default in payment of rent, mesne profits, damages for use & occupation, damages for disrepair, other damages and costs ....


Can anyone advise me if this kind of guarantee is quite normal?


The landlord claims to be an MLAS accredited landlord and the tenancy agreement is approved by the National Landlord Association.

Just make sure you are being a guarantor for your son only, not anyone else. If you are just a general guarantor for the whole house, you could be legally liable to pay if one of your son's friends refuses to pay up.

jjlandlord

F1F93 wrote: »

Just make sure you are being a guarantor for your son only, not anyone else.

That's the main issue to understand in a joint-tenancy: Even being the guarantor for your child only means being guarantor for everyone.

Indeed, as a joint-tenant the child is himself jointly and severally liable for everything. This means that for any shortfall in rent or any damage the landlord may go after any of the joint-tenant for the whole amount.

jaylee3

RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! DO NOT BE A GUARANTOR. You are basically signing a blank cheque, especially if you sign a joint liability.

My friend refused as she is basically poor, and would not have a penny to pay out. She is 5 years into repairing her credit record and this could throw her back to the starting line, even if they *did* let her be guarantor, because it would be a default on her credit record when she was not able to pay up.

She said no, to being a guarantor, and the LL made a separate agreement for her son, and he pays the rent 3-monthly in advance. No worries, as he gets his student loan 3 monthly in advance.

Also some landlords are untrustworthy scoundrels, and will try and rip off poor, unsuspecting parents by trying to bill them for stuff that was probably there before their child and his mates even moved in.

DO NOT SIGN! This getting parents to carry the can is bulls**t and should be outlawed. It's just a way for landlords to rip off gullible and naive parents. Plus, why the hell should anyone be responsible for their 'adult' child's life decisions anyway?

G_M

Since your son is a joint tenant, he is liable (as are the others) for the full rent on the property - it is not apportioned between them. That is just an arrangement they make themselves.

As guaranotr, you will be liable for anything your son is liable for - rent, damage etc.

Although he himself may pay his 'share' of the rent, and cause no damage, if one or more of the others cause a problem, the landlord will not differentiate. He will want the full rent (and compensation for damage) and will not care which tenant he gets it from.

Or which guarantor.

Unfortunately this is pretty standard. And can be a real issue in student properties if the 'friends' fall out, or one or more get into financial difficulty.

You need to understand what you are getting into.

Are parents of the other 5 also guaranteeing? Might be worth checking. If one or more refuse, the landlord might not care as long as you guarantee, since he can always come after you for the full amount.......

Note. To be legally valid and enforcible as a guarantee agreement:

* your signature must be witnessed and the witnes must sign
* it must be Executed as a Deed
* you must have been given a copy of the tenancy agreement before signing (so you know what you are guaranteeing!)

Many LL/agents mess this up, meaning the guarantor could question the agreement in court later.......

edit: the trouble with jaylee3's advice above, is that without a guarantor, many students really struggle to get housing.

dimbo61

Students being 18/19/20 years old have no credit history, so little point doing credit checks.
Would you give the keys to a £200/250,000 property to four/six young men's or women you have never meet before without asking Mum and Dad to be a guarantor ?

jaylee3

dimbo61 wrote: »

Students being 18/19/20 years old have no credit history, so little point doing credit checks.
Would you give the keys to a £200/250,000 property to four/six young men's or women you have never meet before without asking Mum and Dad to be a guarantor ?

In many cases, people don't have much of a relationship with mum and dad - and cannot ask them. And in many other cases, the mum and dad simply can't do it. What then??? You are just assuming that EVERYone can turn to mum and dad to be a guarantor! This is not so.

If these landlords don't want to risk the occasional bloody nose, then they should not be landlords, and they certainly should not be landlords to a bunch of STUDENTS.

It's time that it was stopped; these landlords making parents sign as guarantors for their kids student houses. I know *I* wouldn't do it. And re what GM said, about students really struggling to get housing: I presume you mean if they have no guarantor... As students don't struggle to get house rentals anymore than anyone else.

If it was outlawed to coerce parents to be guarantor, then the landlords would have to take them on with no guarantor except for the students themselves. Then they wouldn't have some sucker of a parent to leech off then, and there would be less unfortunate parents ripped off.

anselld

jaylee3 wrote: »

It's time that it was stopped; these landlords making parents sign as guarantors for their kids student houses. I know *I* wouldn't do it. And re what GM said, about students really struggling to get housing: I presume you mean if they have no guarantor... As students don't struggle to get house rentals anymore than anyone else.

If it was outlawed to coerce parents to be guarantor, then the landlords would have to take them on with no guarantor except for the students themselves. Then they wouldn't have some sucker of a parent to leech off then, and there would be less unfortunate parents ripped off.

It is a valid point of view but wishing the practice is outlawed does not help the OP much. The fact is that it is normal practice with student lets and the OPs son will find it much more difficult to find accomodation if he has no guarantor. In fact he is more likely to end up with a less scrupulous or incompetent LL.

G_M

jaylee3 wrote: »

I...And re what GM said, about students really struggling to get housing: I presume you mean if they have no guarantor... As students don't struggle to get house rentals anymore than anyone else.

No need to 'presume' (assume) aything. Just read my post:

the trouble with jaylee3's advice above, is that without a guarantor, many students really struggle to get housing.

Note: my understanding of this forum is that it is a source of advice information and support - not a campaigning forum.

A letter to your MP would be be more relevant than a rant here about the supposed deficiencies in the current housing/tenancy law.

silvercar

If you don't trust your son to pay the rent, why would you expect anyone else to do so?

Cosimo1964

Silvercar it isn't particularly helpful to state the obvious. I will be contributing to the rent anyway.


The point of my original post was:


1 - to establish if these kind of guarantees were normal, and


2 - to try and get an idea of how far my personal liability might extend.


In summary, it sounds like these are standard for student houses and providing they are all good little children the rent won't be a problem. Does anyone know how far the other liabilities extend? Presumably the landlord will have some kind of insurance in case someone leaves a tap on or blocks a drain?