Guarantor

yksi

Given all you have said (and as I am a similar age, in a similar lifestyle situation, with a similar kind of child) I think I would simply turn off the tap.

In the past, he didn't pay his way, and you bailed him out. He didn't have either a stable income or the means to rent, so you did it for him. He hasn't bothered to find more work so you fund his phone. Put the ball in his court. Make it his problem to solve.

Others know far more about your legal obligations and yes, my take is that you are likely jointly & severally liable for the entire rent. But whether that's true isn't really the point. At this stage, you're handing him cash. He could be blowing it on X-box games for all you know, and then you'll still owe the money all over again.

Turn off the tap. Literally give him nothing and say, sorry, you just don't have the money. This will force his housemate to put pressure on, because the housemate either pays your son's share, or starts pressuring your son to get more work.

The most likely result of this is them falling behind on the rent. I think you should actually want this, because this will annoy the landlord, who'll start thinking about ending the tenancy. And that is how you'll get out of your guarantor agreement eventually - when they get an s8 or s21 eviction notice and you get a final demand. At that point you will at least know the limit of how much you have to pay...

I realise your credit history is at stake here. But realistically, you put your neck on the chopping board long ago. I'm sorry, and I don't mean to play a blame game. I do think it's better you get out asap in a blunt and ugly way, rather than continue to throw money down a bottomless pit.

TripleH

If you follow yksi's advice, I would start putting money aside now to pay this rent bill so you don't end up with a big lump sum with no means of paying it.

If you have a phone contract your son is on, cancel that as well.

The advice sounds like short term pain for all but in the longer term sounds the better option.

MEM62

Slithery said:

MEM62 said:

I think you have no choice but to keep paying until the lease expires.  When does his AST end?  When it does, please do not renew your obligation a guarantor.  

That's not how it works. OP will remain a guarantor until the son no longer lives in the property, no matter how many years that ends up being.

martindow said:

MEM62 said:

I think you have no choice but to keep paying until the lease expires.  When does his AST end?  When it does, please do not renew your obligation a guarantor.  

I suspect that the end of the fixed term will not be the end of the OP's liability.  The tenancy will continue as a periodic tenancy, so being a guarantor will probably also continue.

I disagree.  The guarantor agreement must have a termination date.  It cannot be an open ended liability.  The document I hold in respect of the guarantors for my tenant's rent expires at the end of the AST.  Likewise the guarantee that my wife put up for her two daughter's Uni accommodation needed to be renewed each year.       

Slithery

MEM62 said:

The document I hold in respect of the guarantors for my tenant's rent expires at the end of the AST.

Yes, but the fixed term coming to an end doesn't end an AST. Only the tenant or the courts can do that.

MEM62

Slithery said:

MEM62 said:

The document I hold in respect of the guarantors for my tenant's rent expires at the end of the AST.

Yes, but the fixed term coming to an end doesn't end an AST. Only the tenant or the courts can do that.

So it is the case that by standing guarantor, the OP has an open ended obligation, that has no end date and from which she has no mechanism to withdraw herself?  In that case she choices are to default and trash her financial standing or carry on being a cash cow for her son.  

canaldumidi

Here's a typical example:

DEED OF GUARANTEE

newsgroupmonkey_

yksi said:

I realise your credit history is at stake here.

Unless it goes to court, I wouldn't have thought so.

canaldumidi

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

yksi said:

I realise your credit history is at stake here.

Unless it goes to court, and the OP is ordered to pay by the court and refuses,  I wouldn't have thought so.

.......................

newsgroupmonkey_

canaldumidi said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

yksi said:

I realise your credit history is at stake here.

Unless it goes to court, and the OP is ordered to pay by the court and refuses,  I wouldn't have thought so.

.......................

Yeah, fair point.

Sandtree

canaldumidi said:

Here's a typical example:

DEED OF GUARANTEE

Surprised that they have set it up so that LL and Guarantor have to be in the same room at the same time and sign the same piece of paper. Most deeds I've dealt with allow execution in parts and each signature is individually witnessed so can be done at different times etc.

Not great form to have defined terms like "Property" that are not actually defined in the deed/contract but presumably in a later attachment

The Guarantee is binding, cannot be revoked and shall continue beyond the Guarantor’s death or bankruptcy throughout the period that the Property is occupied by the Tenant or any assignee, subtenant or licensee of the Tenant 

So technically if the Tenant wants to leave and agrees that their mate Bob will takeover their tenancy and so its just assigned to Bob then the guarantor continues to be on the hook but now for Bob