Sons student rental - disaster pending

saajan_12

Comments in line.. the advice for you personally would be not to sign, but that may not be practical if you want son to get a rental. So then best suggestion is try to come up with an agreement with the other parents / students if they are amenable, in the event that you do end up paying under the guarantee. 

[Deleted User] said:

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? - yes, it would be a joint & several tenancy. However they could mitigate this by taking in a lodger for the vacant room.  

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. - you're liable for the full rent plus also any property damage. To mitigate this, I'd suggest agreeing with the other parents (in writing) that if their child doesn't pay their £500 x 12 months and you end up covering it, then that parent would reimburse you. 

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? - correct, the LL wouldn't be able to rent it for the summer, so the alternative would be higher rent for 10 months.. this way they have the flexibility to drop bags etc over the summer.  

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. - that is the risk you take.. are her parents on board? Can she / other students pay a few months upfront? 

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

 

dimbo61

The NRLA now offer 2 Deed of Guarantor forms.
One is a LIMITED Deed of Guarantor  with the parent only responsible for his Son/ Daughter and one where they are liable for the whole  rent if None of the students or other Guarantors will pay.
It's a long drawn out  process involving courts and expensive legal counsel.
We don't ask for income checks or if the Guarantor owns a property.
One young man had his Uncle from Aleppo Syria as a Guarantor ( he paid his rent every month and was a brilliant tenant )
Just insure you do the checks about the property  and if they are paying the bills Don't use any company to assist until you have read the reviews

silvercar

dimbo61 said:

…….
We don't ask for income checks or if the Guarantor owns a property.
One young man had his Uncle from Aleppo Syria as a Guarantor ( he paid his rent every month and was a brilliant tenant )
…..

May as well not bother, if they have no income and no property it wouldn’t be worth your while enforcing the guarantee. 

user1977

dimbo61 said:

One young man had his Uncle from Aleppo Syria as a Guarantor 

So...you checked how creditworthy his uncle was? Or that he even existed? You were hoping to enforce a debt in Syria if necessary?

dimbo61

After the events  around Covid19 and the move to online teaching, Zoom meetings, students being told to go home the student housing market is going through many changes along with the rest of the rental market.
New laws proposed  by Government and supported by " homeless charity Shelter "will see many Landlords sell up.
I am sure the government,  housing associations, private housing companies will soon fill the void.

Cash-Cows

The other thing to consider is bills. My recommendation would be to go with a place with bills included. It will be a nightmare trying to collect from 5 others with the inevitable arguments of some saying I'm not paying for heating as I've not been in very much. 

ariarnia

tooldle said:

We’ve done this for our daughter although it was only for her room. Each housemate had their own agreement. Now as a working adult she has signed a document to say she has somewhere else  to go and to seek support, in the event that she cannot pay her rent, vacating the room immediately hence no guarantor needed. 

thats good for your dd but a bit weird. suggests the problem is tenants not paying rent. in my experience (a few decades back now!) our student landlords were more worried about someone leaving after term started and having to find someone to fill the room. so our contracts said if we dropped out or whatever we were liable for the rent and any council tax (when the house lost exempt status) until a new tenant took over. 

that meant at the end of the year if we didn't want to pay for the last summer or when someone did drop out they proactively found a replacement to hand the room over to. 

[Deleted User]

Jeez it gets worse. After 2 years together (and going to college together) it looks like they've split up (and shes gone off with someone else).

Quite why the pair of them thought it was a good idea to sign a lease to live in the same house next years only 2 weeks ago, who knows. 

Of course, son doesn't want to live in the same house as her now. I can see why. Hes going to have an awkward few months as it is - they're in the same flat in hall of residence.

He tells me hes paid a "holding fee" for the house and signed the lease to start 1st July. Legally, is there any way to get out of it now? Its just a complete mess.

Shes already threatened to leave college, I'm hoping she follows through with this. It'll make life a lot easier.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Boat_to_Bolivia

See if your son can find another student to take the room.

When I read the OP, the first thing I thought was oh dear, that won't end well if him and the gf split up!!

testb2b

[Deleted User] said:

Jeez it gets worse. After 2 years together (and going to college together) it looks like they've split up (and shes gone off with someone else).

Quite why the pair of them thought it was a good idea to sign a lease to live in the same house next years only 2 weeks ago, who knows. 

Of course, son doesn't want to live in the same house as her now. I can see why. Hes going to have an awkward few months as it is - they're in the same flat in hall of residence.

He tells me hes paid a "holding fee" for the house and signed the lease to start 1st July. Legally, is there any way to get out of it now? Its just a complete mess.

Shes already threatened to leave college, I'm hoping she follows through with this. It'll make life a lot easier.

Anyone got any suggestions?

It is just a holding fee so normally they should be able to exit the contract by forfeiting the holding fee/deposit. That's exactly why the LL/agents ask for holding fees.

To avoid this potential hassle, DS has opted to continue to stay in the college even for the 2nd year. It is far more expensive compared to the 1st-year charges - circa £9k inclusive of utility for 9 months compared to £5k for the first year. At least, the 2nd-year accommodation will be an en-suite (new built) and it covers 9 months period compared to 27 weeks for 1st year. The cost outside would have been similar for 12 months. Staying in college accommodation also minimises the commute time.