Retiree as guarantor for house rental

coyrls

I'm not sure that you will get anywhere with the letting agent. What they are really outsourcing is liability for the decision making, not the administration. If they override the reference agency the liability will return to them.

shinytop

saver_ali wrote: »

I wasn't sure whether to raise this in the retirement forum or the housing one, but the problem is unique to retirees, so here goes....

My adult son is moving out, into a rental property. They want a guarantor and I've been asked to complete an online form. I've been his guarantor before, but never been asked for this depth of information. The trouble is, DH and I are now both retirees, live comfortably, but without a regular income stream. We both have good credit ratings and own our home mortgage free. I don't see why they can't just do a credit rating check on me/us.

From googling, it seems that reference agencies want the guarantor's income to be at least 3x the annual rent, so that would be about £36k.

On paper our actual income doesn't look very good. I'm already taking a DB of £12k pa, but that's our only regular income. I get SP in 4 years, plus I have savings, small SIPP and a DC pot.

DH retired a couple of months ago, so doesn't actually have any income at the moment. We're living off his retirement bonus, and will start drawing on his large DC pot later this tax year. His DB and SP kick in in 4-5 years.

The reference agency seems to take account of savings, but you have to say how much you are taking as income per annum, and give statements. We're not taking any income because we'd don't need to!

I don't want to give my bank or savings account numbers to anyone, so assume it will be ok to redact them from any statements I submit. Even so, their data protection policy seems very broad, and they can share my data with whoever they think appropriate, except they won't sell it.

I'll call the reference agency when they open on Monday, but has anyone been in a similar position, and how did you handle it?

I thought about it, did a few checks on the agency, gave them the information and signed the forms. I was working at the time and they just wanted details of income. I also had to give some much more detailed information when I gifted my son some money to help with a house purchase. That included bank statements, source of funds, etc. If you want to help your kids you sometimes have no choice.

shinytop

tacpot12 wrote: »

The best thing that can happen here is that you fail the referencing process and cannot become a guarantor. There are so many experiences related on this board and others where the guarantor has come onto the board for advice becuase their "trustworth" family member as failed to pay the rent, and they have lost their savings, their credit rating or their house because they have stood as guarantor.

Please don't do it. If you want to help your son, let him move in with you as your guest.

You haven't said why they want a guarantor. If you are prepared to share the reason, there might be some other options that would allow him to rent without exposing you to this horrendous risk.

What a load of nonsense. As long they are aware of the risk, OP should help their son out. I did, and I also lent my kids my car and left them alone in my house, both of which were worth more than a few months rent.

saver_ali

Update from OP...

It turned out that the referencing agency wanted a guarantor because my son's salary was under £27k pa. However, they were prepared to take into account his ISA savings, and he submitted screenprints of the latest online balances. So it's all sorted and I don't need to be a guarantor.

One of his flatmates also needed a guarantor, but his father is in employment so it was a simpler process than for us, as we are retirees without a regular income.

Thanks for your input.