Student housing - signing contract

HalfASixpence

Hi all


My daughter has decided to rent a house with two of her Uni friends for next year. She has filled in all the forms and I am acting as guarantor for her.


Anyway, the letting agent has been in touch to say that the three of them have to come to their office together to sign the contract and pick up the keys. Fair enough, but they are insisting that this is done on 1st July. We live 300 miles away from my daughters Uni city. We are already going up the week after , and would be happy to get this done on 7th July, but the letting agent say it MUST be done on 1st July.


My question is, do they have the right to insist on this? Can we force them to change the date? The other two prospective tenants are much closer, and don't mind waiting a week.


Thanks for any information anyone can offer.

Pixie5740

What date is the tenancy due to start?

saajan_12

When is the contract due to start? (i.e. date rent is due to cover, even if they don't move in / start tenancy)

Is the agent open on 7th? (if they are a student agency they might close for summer?)

Is your daughter in the area still finishing her current year? If so, why do you need to be there?

Most likely the agents are trying to make it easier for themselves by having everyone in together and getting things sorted when it suits them, but it's all a negotiation re who will compromise.

G_M

HalfASixpence wrote: »

Hi all


My daughter has decided to rent a house with two of her Uni friends for next year. She has filled in all the forms and I am acting as guarantor for her.
are you sure you are not acting as guarantor for the tenancy? What exactly does the guarante Deed say?


Anyway, the letting agent has been in touch to say that the three of them have to come to their office together to sign the contract and pick up the keys. Fair enough, but they are insisting that this is done on 1st July. We live 300 miles away from my daughters Uni city. We are already going up the week after , and would be happy to get this done on 7th July, but the letting agent say it MUST be done on 1st July.
What date does the tenancy start? The keys are not important, but the LL will want the contract signed efore the tenancy start date, and the deposit and 1st months rent paid.


My question is, do they have the right to insist on this?
Yes
Can we force them to change the date?
No - tough you can ask.
The other two prospective tenants are much closer, and don't mind waiting a week.
If the tenancy agreement is not signed, the LL can offer it to someone else

Thanks for any information anyone can offer.

However I don't see why the contract cannot be posted. The landlord/agent will want to verify ID, but I imagine this could be done in advance (ie now) wih the actual signing happening later.

Suggest this to the LL?

SHM87

They could post you a copy of the contract for signing, and it shouldn't need all 3 of them present to collect the keys.

When I rented as a student, we posted back the contract, and just one of us went to get all the keys and signed to say they had received them.

Sounds like they don't appreciate the situation.

Davesnave

HalfASixpence wrote: »

My daughter has decided to rent a house with two of her Uni friends for next year. She has filled in all the forms and I am acting as guarantor for her.

The bad news may be that you are actually acting as guarantor for the whole tenancy, as will any other guarantors.

In the event of a default, the LL will go after whoever's easiest to chase, so if another guarantor was, say, in a different country, while another was on long term disability benefit, you might look like the best bet!


Of course, all might be as you say, but check the deed's wording very carefully.

casper_g

Even if you are only acting as a guarantor for your daughter's liability, under most tenancy contracts she will be "jointly and severally" responsible for the whole rent for the property, so that is what you will be guaranteeing. Thousands of people agree to act as guarantors in these circumstances, and it might be fine, but you need to understand and accept the risk. The difficulty is that you probably don't know the other tenants or their families.

DoaM

SHM87 wrote: »

They could post you a copy of the contract for signing, and it shouldn't need all 3 of them present to collect the keys.

When I rented as a student, we posted back the contract, and just one of us went to get all the keys and signed to say they had received them.

Sounds like they don't appreciate the situation.

I'm guarantor for my daughter's current tenancy (in Scotland). Even though I live not far away I did all the arrangements and signing via email. (I provided scans of ID and scans of the signed guarantor form to the letting agent via email).

I'm not sure though whether my daughter had to visit in person to sign the tenancy agreement - I seem to recall she had the various forms away with her for checking before signing and returning.

Bear in mind though that may just be the way this agent works.

dimbo61

The letting agents are being difficult !
Not a good start to the tenant / Landlord / Letting agents relationship.
Of course they can post out the tenancy agreement/deed of guarantor/inventory to you to see/read/check with a solicitor if you want.
They should have sent an email with a copy of the tenancy agreement/ details of the deposit scheme they use etc before you signed the guarantor form.

Most if not all student Landlord's ask for parents to be guarantors.
18/19/20 year old students have very little credit history so no point doing credit checks