Sons student rental - disaster pending

[Deleted User]

Son is 1st year in college this year....

Him and 5 friends have decided they want to rent a house next year instead of halls of residence. Now its been a long time since I rented anywhere so I've no idea but a few things I'm concerned about.

The rent is £3000 a month, split between 6 of them. If one person bails out, does that mean the rest have to make it up?

He needs a guarantor. At the moment, all I'm getting from him is "the other parents have done it". I don't want to be a guarantor for £3000 a month to find out I'm on the line for someone elses kid I've not even met whos decided they want to leave college.

Apparently, hes already signed the lease which I wasn't happy about. Generally is it fixed for the year (starts in July too - waste of money!) with no notice period?

One of the fellow tenants is sons GF who is the most flakey person you'd ever meet. Already shes talking about whether she wants to stay in college and I'm thinking "hang on you've just signed a lease for a year!" Same with money, son is REALLY good but his GF has the financial skills of a 5 year old - I pointed that since the rental runs from July they will need to find deposit, July, Aug, Sep rent BEFORE next years student loan arrives. I just can see there in no way this girl is going to have this.

Best place to get proper legal advice. I've (finally) got a copy of the lease off him.

artyboy

Having been through this with my elder child, I'd say that all of what you are saying is pretty normal for 2nd year house shares, no, there's not a lot you can do about the whole guarantor thing, and in plenty of 'student towns' the demand for accommodation is so high that if you look like you are going to be rocking the boat with 'legal advice', then someone else less fussy will step in and nab the room.

Not saying any of this is great, just that it is how it is...

user1977

[Deleted User] said:

I've (finally) got a copy of the lease off him.

So...what does it say? Because it should answer your first question at least.

anselld

The legal advice will be don't sign it, but that doesnt help our son.

There is a form of Guarantor document called "Limited Guarantee" which limits your liability to your own son's share of rent, although full liability remains for damages.  You could request the Landlord to sign the Limited Guarantee.  They may or may not agree.

Unfortunately your son is already jointly liable through signing the tenancy so whatever you decide to do doesnt get him off the hook.  He is an adult after all.

Keep_pedalling

You say that they have chosen to rent a house, but in most universities students don’t get a choice as HoR are for 1st year students only.

herebeme

Well you could refuse to guarantee and then he has to find another option. But probably most places for students will require some form of guarantor. 

Tell him that as he signed a lease you have to guarantee without asking you first that he’ll have to work all his holidays to pay you back for the upfront rent loan (charge him interest too). If he’s good with money he should have realised that you won’t necessarily have 3 months of rent lying around. Tell him he will also have to pay you back for any guarantor monies you end up having to pay out. 

Gov.uk, shelter, and CAB all have advice on tenancies including fixed period which this sounds like. Tell him to educate himself in case problems arise. 

user1977

Whether or not to sign a guarantee might not be all that much of a dilemma if in practice you'd feel morally obliged to bail out your offspring anyway. The time to get advice about what a joint and several obligation means (assuming this is one) is before he signs the lease.

Of course also bear in mind that it's immensely unlikely the other five housemates are going to disappear leaving him to pick up the tab solo - ultimately the risk is going to be shared among all the tenants and guarantors, and anybody who pays more than their share has the right to recover the balance from the other tenants.

_Penny_Dreadful

Everything you’ve mentioned for a student let is pretty standard. Tenancy is joint with the others, landlord requests guarantors for each tenant and tenancy starts in June. Halls of residence aren’t usually an option for 2nd year students, in fact in some university towns even 1st year students aren’t getting a place in halls due to demand. 

oystercatcher

As mentioned this is very normal for students and usually works out OK. Don't discount the summer months as a waste of time. Uni's often organise work placements and summers schools for these months and students will need to live there still. My son earned loads working for a big company for two summers and they offered him a job when he finished uni too although he chose to go elsewhere. 

theoretica

As you say, there are downsides to this arrangement - but this doesn't mean there are other properties available without such downsides, there may well not be!  You don't mention where he is studying, but round my area I know it is a nightmare finding accommodation. 

youth_leader

My daughter went to Leeds, and I acted as guarantor for the last two years of her student house shares, everything was fine. I also paid her rent, which probably helped, it was a dodgy area and I didn't want her walking home alone late at night.   The last house had 12 students, what a pit that was!  One person did leave, but found someone to take their room.

A few of the students did move in July/August as they had part-time jobs.

I was a bit surprised when she moved to Belfast as a young working adult of 25 to be asked to be guarantor for her rented flat there, but her boyfriend's parents were also asked.