Student Joint Tenancy - Guarantor

codo

Hi

My daughter has moved into a house with two other students. They had to agree to a joint tenancy to secure the property as the landlord would not consider individual tenancy agreements.  

All the guarantors are now liable if any of the students leave/don’t pay the rent. The three guarantors are very uncomfortable with the situation and would have preferred to only be liable for their own daughter. Is there any way that the guarantors can sign a separate legal agreement to counter the joint tenancy and agree that each is only responsible for their own child?

Any advice very welcome. 

Thanks

Slithery

Too late now.

This should have been agreed before anything was signed.

MoJoeGo

Well of course the guarantors are free to get together and come up with a separate agreement that indemnifies each of them for the actions of children that are not theirs.

But that is distinct from, and has no bearing on, the tenancy/guarantor agreements that they have already signed. That ship has sailed...

saajan_12

codo said:

Hi

My daughter has moved into a house with two other students. They had to agree to a joint tenancy to secure the property as the landlord would not consider individual tenancy agreements.  

All the guarantors are now liable if any of the students leave/don’t pay the rent. The three guarantors are very uncomfortable with the situation and would have preferred to only be liable for their own daughter. Is there any way that the guarantors can sign a separate legal agreement to counter the joint tenancy and agree that each is only responsible for their own child?

Any advice very welcome. 

Thanks

Why would the LL agree to anything that would 'counter' the joint & several liability they have (ie ability to recover arrears from any of 6 tenants/guarantors if anything is unpaid, rather than just 1/2) ?

If it helps things feel less unfair, this is fairly standard and reasonable for properties rented as a whole. With individual tenancies, if one stops paying / leaves / needs evicting, then the LL would need to find a single replacement willing to join an established house and daughter would have no control over who moves in. There's also no way to split damages in common areas or bills etc, so the rent tends to be higher to make up for these. 
So if the tenancy is joint, then each tenant's share precisely is the full rent, so there is no 

So with the LL, no chance - if someone doesn't pay, you would be liable to the LL.

HOWEVER, between the other tenants / guarantors, you should agree that each tenant & corresponding guarantor together are liable for 1/3 of the rent and any damages that the tenant does. 
That way, if you end up paying for another co-tenant's share of rent, you can then claim that off them / their guarantor based on this side agreement. Note this can't be used to avoid having to pay the LL, and any difficulties in collecting are your problem, but at least you have a legal claim (/threat)

canaldumidi

I have seen guarantee agreements that limit the guarantor's liability to, say, 1/3rd of any rent arrears, but they are legally a nightmare. Does not account for which joint tenant ran up the arrears, and trying to draft something that limits liability strictly toone joint tenant is all but impossible since, in law, the joint tenants are a single entity.

But as said above - too late now!

eddddy

As you probably realise, if any rent is unpaid or any damage is caused, the landlord can choose any guarantor (or tenant) to persue.

(Ultimately, the landlord might pick on the easiest or softest or wealthiest looking guarantor.)

I guess you're saying it's unfair if one student fails to pay their fair share of rent, or does damage, and another student's parent ends up being pursued.


The 3 guarantors can certainly make an agreement between themselves, that if one student is at fault, but another student's parent ends up paying - the person at fault has to repay them.


But TBH, if a parent is prepared to refuse to pay for their child's wrongdoing in the first place and stand back and let the landlord chase somebody else, I doubt the exitance of this agreement will change their behaviour.  So it might end up as a nasty court battle.

MoJoeGo

Incidentally, it's precisely this sort of guarantor nonsense that is making me determined to actually buy a place for my eldest (plus chums) to live while at Uni - assuming they survive their first year in halls...

Years ago I swore I'd never become a landlord, but I think it might just be preferable to having to deal with a student let from the opposite side...

user1977

You do at least seem to have the reassurance of knowing that there are two other guarantors, rather than discovering that you're the only one...

dimbo61

Every year this comes up time and again 
Students receive loans from the Student Loan Company which is paid out in 3 parts throughout the year.
Most students are young people who are living away from home for the first time and sharing a property with other students they will have known for only a few months.
Of course nearly all Student landlords ask for Joint and Several tenancies and parent guarantors.
Fact of life

codo

Thanks All

As with a lot of student rentals there was no option for individual tenancy or changing terms of the agreement before it was signed. The guarantors signed the contract as there was no other option. Hopefully all will go well for the year but naturally the three guarantors really only wanted liability for their own daughter.

What I was trying to find out was if a separate agreement was set up by the three guarantors (stating if any guarantor had to pay for arrears/damage for the others daughter that those monies would be paid back) would that agreement be binding or would this agreement have to be done through a solicitor. 

canaldumidi

codo said:

What I was trying to find out was if a separate agreement was set up by the three guarantors (stating if any guarantor had to pay for arrears/damage for the others daughter that those monies would be paid back) would that agreement be binding or would this agreement have to be done through a solicitor. 

 The three could execute a Deed stating something along those lines. But

a) as edddy said earlier: " if a parent is prepared to refuse to pay for their child's wrongdoing in the first place and stand back and let the landlord chase somebody else, I doubt the exitance of this agreement will change their behaviour.  So it might end up as a nasty court battle."

b) good luck with the court battle - solicitors would get rich interpreting and trying to enforce said Deed what with trying to prove which daughter was responsible for what....