being a guarentor for a student's rent

lizcon

Our son is just arranging his student accomodation for next year, and I have been asked to be his guarentor. It is a joint tenancy with 5 others so this means I am acting as guarentor for the whole household (along with 5 other parents presumably). I am uncomfortalbe about taking on this level of commitment. they have said that an alternative is to pay all the rent up front - which we could do. what are the pros and cons, and what are the downsides of paying so much up front?

Voyager2002

Why not read the guarantor agreement and negotiate over any terms that you find unacceptable? After all, the landlord needs tenants.

silvercar

Downside of paying all upfront is that the landlord is very relaxed about dealing with any issues in the property.

Little_Miss_Naughty

Your son could also pay a fee and use an independent housing guarantor such as housinghand.

Owain_Moneysaver

Warning - if you are a guarantor you are probably guaranteeing all liability for all the tenants - not just the rent, but for damage and any other claims by the landlord.

flashg67

My 2 are at uni and I've acted as guarantor for both over the last 2 years. Both sets of terms (different agents) specifically said I was only guaranteeing 'my' share of the rent. It seems unreasonable (and unlikely from my experience) that one parent would be asked to guarantee the full rent for 5+ students, but worth checking the wording, certainly.

dimbo61

There are 2 really big Landlord associations in the UK.
The RLA and the NLA.
They both have a standard Guarantor form some 3/4 pages long.
The RLA form states that as a guarantor you are liable for the rent of your student son/daughter.
The Landlord is handing the keys to a £250/350,000 property with at best £3,000 deposit.
Many lenders require borrowers to have guarantors when renting to students.