Being Guarantor For Son's Student Accommodation

pleasedelete

Well I have been the guarantor to 5 different student landlords- in 3 cities- so I wouldn't say lucky. We have never been credit checked and neither have our children. 3 of them have been large letting agencies- 1 private and 1 small agency. Plus of course 3 university landlords in the 1st year.

Are students a poor risk?

AnotherJoe

There's also no reason you cannot alter the agreement, which may or may not be acceptable to them, but everything is negotiable. For example, as mentioned by other posters in similar threads, you could limit the total amount of your liability, and limit it to your sons rent only even if all students are equally responsible for all rent.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

How is your son going to pay the rent?

Student's income tends to come in chunks (loans or grants) on a termly basis.

If feasible, get your son to pay you the whole of the termly rent in advance when they receive their money, and you pay the landlord.

pleasedelete

AnotherJoe wrote: »

There's also no reason you cannot alter the agreement, which may or may not be acceptable to them, but everything is negotiable. For example, as mentioned by other posters in similar threads, you could limit the total amount of your liability, and limit it to your sons rent only even if all students are equally responsible for all rent.

That is what I did when I said statement. It was slightly different each time. Only 1 was a deed- I had that changed to a limited guarantee deed but actually didn't get it witnessed and made sure I sent them an unwitnessed copy by post and email.

With the others I just changed wording to limit liability, they all agreed immediately- its must be a standard request from parents. Our in house lawyer gave me wording.

I think 1 may have been a limited guarantee anyway but I still used my wording

Anoneemoose

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

How is your son going to pay the rent?

Student's income tends to come in chunks (loans or grants) on a termly basis.

If feasible, get your son to pay you the whole of the termly rent in advance when they receive their money, and you pay the landlord.

He gets his grants and loan 3 times yearly and has always paid in advance in the past. I don't doubt he'll pay it, I just want to be fully aware of what I am getting into!

Anoneemoose

pleasedelete wrote: »

That is what I did when I said statement. It was slightly different each time. Only 1 was a deed- I had that changed to a limited guarantee deed but actually didn't get it witnessed and made sure I sent them an unwitnessed copy by post and email.

With the others I just changed wording to limit liability, they all agreed immediately- its must be a standard request from parents. Our in house lawyer gave me wording.

I think 1 may have been a limited guarantee anyway but I still used my wording

Thanks! It has been mentioned about the jointly and severally liable stuff on another similar thread as well, so will definitely check this out!

theoretica

You could tell your son you will be guarantor if he sends you a picture of the reciept (or equivalent) when he pays rent.

foolofbeans

theoretica wrote: »

You could tell your son you will be guarantor if he sends you a picture of the reciept (or equivalent) when he pays rent.

But unless he has a guarantor he won't get the tenancy so there will be no rent to pay surely?

Pippilongstocking

pleasedelete wrote: »

That is what I did when I said statement. It was slightly different each time. Only 1 was a deed- I had that changed to a limited guarantee deed but actually didn't get it witnessed and made sure I sent them an unwitnessed copy by post and email.

With the others I just changed wording to limit liability, they all agreed immediately- its must be a standard request from parents. Our in house lawyer gave me wording.

I think 1 may have been a limited guarantee anyway but I still used my wording

We did this too and changed the liability to our daughters share of the rent only -- the agents were a bit miffed we did it but it was perfectly legal (Scotland).

We just wrote in hand on the form - and told the agents what we were doing. She's sharing with four and some of the other parents were'nt' fussed but as she's sharing with 3 unknown (lovely) other students we were not signing something to say we were liable for all their rooms too.

I think like many have said its pretty standard to amend the guarantor agreement like this.

Goodluck

ETA - we also did this for our son - lone flat and for the first year he paid his contribution of the rent to us and we paid the landlord as we topped his rent up. Seemed a good way to get him on a steady financial footing. By second year he did it himself as he didnt' need any direct help with rent because he was sharing but we still acted as guarantors for his share of the liability of the flat.

blisteringblue

Have done this for both my step daughters and it seems to be the norm.

Depending on the type of accommodation it's probably not a mega issue. One of the twins dropped out after the first term while in halls, and I was not chased for any money. Now if this had been her 2nd year in a private let then I think it would have been totally different though.