Guarantors for tenants

GreenSnake

dimbo61 wrote: »

I would love to show you some of the beautiful students houses now available in Manchester one of the biggest student cities in the country.
We ask student tenants to provide guarantors and parents sign deed of guarantor forms.
We ask students to sign " joint and several tenancies "
We are providing properties that can cost £500/600,000 and get maybe £3/4,000 in deposits.
Students have no credit history or references from previous landlords.
Most landlords now provide All-inclusive rent with all bills included.
Gas/Electric/Water/Super Fast Broadband and TV licence. 42/49" Smart TV
Gardner and window cleaner.
Please check out Manchester Student Homes website ( A university paid for office in Manchester )
Landlords who advertise on the website have to be accredited and attend CPD events about Fire safety, Student mental health, Security and student safety. Standards expected from Landlords.ETC
The days of students living in damp, dirty hovels are for Most students long gone.
Parents and students want good quality accommodation with Landlords who look after the properties.
I have never had a parent refuse to sign a Deed of guarantor form and have Never needed to try and make any claim.
Students are nearly always excellent tenants who will look after a property if you are a good proactive Landlord.
They will report other students in the same property if problems arise. IE smoking or causing damage in the property

Very interesting reply, thanks.
So presumably, for this higher standard of accommodation to now be affordable to students, more accommodation has been built?
How does it all compare cost wise to the traditional house share?

You mentioned you've never had a parent of a student refuse to sign a guarantor agreement, but have you had parents who do not have sufficient income etc to qualify as guarantors? What happens then?

Nebulous2

I've had several children in rented accommodation over the past 10 years. Often low to middle-end, self-managed property. Until now I've never been asked to be a guarantor. One child has just moved and the flat is better, with a full management service. Sharing with one other person. Joint and several liability.

I had to sign up to be a guarantor and the agency used a company (at a cost to me) to provide a report on my suitability. They were very thorough, needed 3 payslips, 3 bank statements and they contacted my employer.

My impression is, like most things, there is a whole market out there catering for different levels of affordability.

Flats for people with less secure parents aren't as well looked after, aren't much cheaper, but are available without checks. Halls are often a slightly more expensive option but ease people into being away from home. Then students form groupings, decide who they want to share with and often several months in advance begin negotiating with landlords.

It's very common to be treated badly; queue for ages to be shown a flat with no-one turning up, go to mass viewings where the first people to put down a cash deposit get promised it, but then one of your group throws a strop and says they don't want it, be promised it and then have it withdrawn, get bounced into signing an onerous lease (a year when you want September to June) etc.

Nebulous2

GreenSnake wrote: »

You mentioned you've never had a parent of a student refuse to sign a guarantor agreement, but have you had parents who do not have sufficient income etc to qualify as guarantors? What happens then?

In my experience people whose parents can't or wont be guarantors simply never get anywhere near that type of property.

silvercar

GreenSnake wrote: »

Very interesting reply, thanks.
So presumably, for this higher standard of accommodation to now be affordable to students, more accommodation has been built?
How does it all compare cost wise to the traditional house share?

You mentioned you've never had a parent of a student refuse to sign a guarantor agreement, but have you had parents who do not have sufficient income etc to qualify as guarantors? What happens then?

Higher standards of accommodation are more expensive, obviously.

A way round the lack of a guarantor is to pay rent up front. Downside is that if all the students in a house have done that, you may find a landlord less keen on repairs.

There is also rent insurance, whereby the tenant without guarantor pays for a policy that covers the lack of income or guarantor. It isn't that common.

silvercar

GreenSnake wrote: »

Is this what is meant by "joint and several liability"?
I definitely would not agree to that.
I wouldn't really be keen on acting as a guarantor, even if it was an individual tenancy for only my daughter. Obviously, this is not as bad as a shared tenancy, but it still means me supporting her in a way. I'd prefer she acted as an independent adult. But obviously I need to find out if that's realistic these days.

Downsides of this view is that it will limit your daughter's options.

Students usually decide early on who they want to live with in Year 2. If your daughter then finds that her chosen friends want to live in a shared house and she has no guarantor, she may well be excluded.

LandyAndy

I have acted as guarantor for both of my sons on four separate occasions. I can't say the prospect filled me with joy but I did decide that it was the best course of action because otherwise they would have had either nowhere to live or been living in a hovel. I am still guarantor for one but, so far, I have had no problems.


What I think is important is for your child to get into university accommodation in the first year so that they can build up a group of friends to rent with in subsequent years and also not have to deal with all the additional concerns that come with being a first time tenant.

silvercar

Nebulous2 wrote: »

In my experience people whose parents can't or wont be guarantors simply never get anywhere near that type of property.

Not all landlords/ letting agents are scrupulous in their verification of guarantors.

In our 6 years of being a student parent guarantor, only twice were employment details properly verified, one was shoddily done and the other 3 were just signatures on a form (one not even a deed).

I also suspect that students who don't have suitable guarantors, suddenly find them when the house share is at risk. Forging the signature of a parent can't be that difficult; digital signatures are even easier

At the end of the day you need to balance your wish that your offspring lives in decent accommodation combined in a trust that they choose honest and decent friends with the financial risk that is involved.

Having seen some of the accommodation that my children chose to live in, I hate to see where those with less choice end up.

dimbo61

We ask for parents or even grandparents/sister/brother to be guarantors. We don't do income or employment checks !
So if mum and dad have a low income they can and do sign to guarantee that they will pay the rent for there son/daughter if the student does not pay.
We offer All-inclusive as this means the tenants are Not financially linked for the next 6 years.
No one tenant has to take on the responsibility of paying the Gas and electric or setting up the broadband ( which can take weeks ) or asking other tenants for money weeks or months after they have moved out.
Please don't get me started about Glide or split the bills !
We do charge for providing this level of service but the costs are cheaper than halls and students Love living as part of a group and sharing.
Like I said check out Manchester Student Homes ( Halls to Homes )
We have a Facebook page as well.

Comms69

dimbo61 wrote: »

We ask for parents or even grandparents/sister/brother to be guarantors. We don't do income or employment checks ! - why not? What is the point then?
So if mum and dad have a low income they can and do sign to guarantee that they will pay the rent for there son/daughter if the student does not pay. - But these are joint tenancies, so they can be charged the rent for the whole property, or for rent that a housemate didn't pay
We offer All-inclusive as this means the tenants are Not financially linked for the next 6 years. - Nor would they be if they shared a utility bill, that's not how financial linking works
No one tenant has to take on the responsibility of paying the Gas and electric or setting up the broadband ( which can take weeks ) or asking other tenants for money weeks or months after they have moved out.
Please don't get me started about Glide or split the bills !
We do charge for providing this level of service but the costs are cheaper than halls and students Love living as part of a group and sharing.
Like I said check out Manchester Student Homes ( Halls to Homes )
We have a Facebook page as well.

I cant stand the guarantor culture. If the tenancies were separate then the parents are atleast insuring only against their own child, not a stranger!

aneary

dimbo61 wrote: »

We ask for parents or even grandparents/sister/brother to be guarantors. We don't do income or employment checks !
So if mum and dad have a low income they can and do sign to guarantee that they will pay the rent for there son/daughter if the student does not pay.
We offer All-inclusive as this means the tenants are Not financially linked for the next 6 years.
No one tenant has to take on the responsibility of paying the Gas and electric or setting up the broadband ( which can take weeks ) or asking other tenants for money weeks or months after they have moved out.
Please don't get me started about Glide or split the bills !
We do charge for providing this level of service but the costs are cheaper than halls and students Love living as part of a group and sharing.
Like I said check out Manchester Student Homes ( Halls to Homes )
We have a Facebook page as well.

I didn't think you were allowed to place ads on the forum.