Student House - Guarantor advice

[Sew109]

My Dad refused to be the guarantor for my sister in a house of 9 people, having his own business he felt it would be easier for them to chase him than some of the others that had nothing. My sister then went and asked had to step in

Its so tricky to know what to do

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by Sew109

My Dad refused to be the guarantor for my sister in a house of 9 people, having his own business he felt it would be easier for them to chase him than some of the others that had nothing. My sister then went and asked mu uncle he agreed straight away so my Dad felt he would.

Its so tricky to know what to do

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Whilst that last line is true, it is very likely that it's a case of no guarantor = no house, which does limit the available options if paying up front doesn't solve the problem.

[Kenwood]

All I can suggest is to carefully read the agreement to identify wherever the liability is placed on you. If you are in any doubt about anything, get it clarified in writing from the landlord/agency before signing. Of all the properties my son has been in, I was always the last to sign agreements as i was always asking questions. I guess a lot of parents just sign them without really understanding the potential consequences.

Make sure you view the property with your son/daughter and photograph/video the property before anyone moves in. This will be invaluable for when they move out if there are any damage claims. Look at the security of the property as well, some of the properties my son looked at were woefully bad for security, ie window locks missing, broken or no keys, decent locking mechanisms for external doors.

Unfortunately It’s a difficult situation to be in. It’s unlikely that you’ll find a house with no guarantors required, so I guess it’s a necessary evil. Students need a place to stay so it’s something that needs to be done in order for them to stay away from home.

[levtweeney]

My daughter has just rented a new build flat in Manchester with her two friends. Each tenant had to have their own guarantor and that guarantor was responsible for their linked tenant. I am not responsible for the rent from the other two friends.

In her first year at Uni she rented a house in Manchester. Exactly the same system as above. One girl left her course early, she refused to pay her share of the rent and her parents had recently got divorced so had nothing and we never had to pay her share.

[Edie ray]

My son shared with 6 others last year, one of the girls left at Christmas and didn’t pay her rent

They did not go after her guarantor, they went after each individual student in the house

At the end of the tenancy they withheld their deposits to cover then missing rent and wrote off whatever rent was still due

So all down about £500 each

I said to my son never again so this year he is sharing with just 2 others, I would never advise sharing a large house with a large group of students because of this x

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by Edie ray

At the end of the tenancy they withheld their deposits to cover then missing rent and wrote off whatever rent was still due

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They shouldn't be able to do that, at least not easily and without contention anyway.

Which reminds me: It sounds dull, but please make sure your children ensure their landlord uses one of the tenancy deposit protection schemes - they are literally legally obligated to do so.

It will mean, at the end of the tenancy, the landlord can't just refuse to give the deposit back, knowing the students don't have much obvious way of resolving it.

They should receive formal notification from whichever scheme the landlord uses, confirming that the deposit has been protected.

It's something I know a lot about as I project managed a team that delivered the system for one of the schemes.

Details here if you don't know much about it: gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection

[shirley]

DS in Manchester has separate agreements in both his flats.

[CarolynU]

If you cannot afford to pick up the bill for the household defaults and it would put your own life and finances in jeopardy then don’t do it.
You could end up in a very sticky situation.
If on the other hand it would be very very annoying but you could suffer the potential loss then that’s different.

[megaflyer]

Originally Posted by shirley

DS in Manchester has separate agreements in both his flats.

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It it says its 'joint and several' even with your separate contract a landlord can chase you for the whole lot

[Glee Fan]

Have a look on the website and/or Facebook group called WIWIKAU (What I Wish I knew about University).

There are lots of posts on there about this very subject.

You can however take out insurance and I’ve seen these 2 companies talked about.

- Guarantor Insure
- onlymyshare

Might be worth looking into. I need to do this soon as my dd is looking at next years accommodation, but they haven’t yet chosen anything so I’ve been putting it off.