private shared student accommodation

[stillcrazyafter]

my offspring wants to share a house with 6 others next year. At least one of them is a very bad influence on her. My offspring has proved incapable of sticking to a budget this year in Uni accommodation. The letting agency want a parent as guarantor. The rent is nearly £36,000 per year and all tenants are responsible jointly for rent, bills, damage etc. My income is low. I have done everything I can to put my child off going into this accommodation. Our relationship has almost completely broken down over it. I am still very reluctant to sign as guarantor. What to do?

[chocoluvva]

Which city? £500pm for one room in a shared house seems quite steep.

(DD is in a two spacious, though fairly grotty 2 bed flat that costs £725pmonth for the whole flat.)

[Legaldoodle]

You are only guarantor to your DDs share of the rent, not all of it! Also, she should pay the rent from her maintenance loan because usually the rent is due at roughly the same time as the loan gets paid into her bank account. This rent is not high for London.... Is is only a bit on the high side for Bristol. Other cities are cheaper of course. If you don't sign as guarantor she will never get any flat at all! It is her debt, not yours - and sadly you cannot choose her friends for her. She will just have to manage her debts and get a good job.

[BackOnPlanetEarth]

LegalDoodle. I'm guessing from your name that you know what you are talking about unlike me but when my DD approached me about this the accompanying paperwork said I would, theoretically, be liable for everyone's rent. I refused to sign and she was still able to rent the room/house ?

[ISingSoprano]

Check the contract - we are only guarantor for ds's share of the rent for his student house, not the whole lot.

[mumeeee]

You will only be guarantor for you own DD. The others will each have to find their own guarantors. The only thing that may possibly happen is that the landlord/letting agency won't let any of the students sign the contract until they all have a guarantor. Well that's what happened with DD2

[RustyBear]

When DD rented privately in Exeter each person in the house had to have a guarantor, but the contract did say each guarantor was liable for the whole rent in case of all the others defaulting. This was in her 3rd year, by which time she knew all the others fairly well - I might not have been so happy about signing for her second year accomodation, which she had got sorted out by November of her first year, with people she'd only known 6 weeks, but that was with a student accomodation company and they didn't ask for guarantors.

[OverTheHandlebars]

You might be responsible just for her rent or for the entire rent, it depends entirely on what the contract says and does vary between letting agencies. It is worth checking. If she's told you that it would be for the whole rent then it probably is.

[Chopchopbusybusy]

I wouldn't sign as guarantor if I was liable for £36000 of rent. I am a guarantor for DD but only for her share of the rent. Which city is it?

[whattodoforthebest2]

Uni is always more expensive than you expect it to be. I guaranteed my DS's rent in a 6-person house share for a year, but only his share of it. You can speak to the agent yourself to clarify. She will need to get a job ASAP and start looking well in advance of her start date, otherwise all the jobs will be gone as everyone's in the same boat. Encourage her to cook for herself and also to pool money for meals together with her flat mates - my DS perfected spag bol, chilli, chicken Caesar salad etc for his mates and charged them £1 or £2 a time - everyone was happy.

NB Her share will be £428/m.

[Jackieharris]

Wow is this how it is now? Parents are expected to be guarantors?

F*! I'd have dropped out then. I was on/off estranged from my parents during Uni. I signed my own room share rentals and paid it out of my student loan/overdraft.

No way would I be guarantor for £36k. That's insanity.

[Needmoresleep]

You really need to check and ensure that any document explicitly limits you to your DDs share of the rent. It is standard for tenants to be jointly liable, so if one does not pay the others have to cough up. So there could be a danger that you are guaranteeing your daughters liability not her rent share.

The rent is quite a lot. DS is paying about the same but will only be 5 minutes walk from his central London college so no fares plus he will be able to cook lunch as well as dinner. Your daughter should add in fares and be clear about bills and how costs are shared. Also ask about the deposit. If you don't look after the property this does not come back.

Oddly London student lets quite often don't require guarantors. Mainly because so many students are from overseas so not able to provide a UK based guarantor. Instead it is often two months deposit and rent pain in six month tranches in advance. I am a landlord and was already letting to overseas students on that basis so relaxed about my son being given the same terms when renting through a reputable London agent. I would be very reluctant to be a guarantor if I did not trust the others in the house. This is your daughters first big financial transaction. If she ends up with a poor credit record or a CCJ it could affect her future employability. She does not seem to be approaching it very maturely. I would say no.

[IamtheDevilsAvocado]

I would closely examine the guarantor contract - preferably get someone legally qualified to advise.

A pal is going to court as her sons 1st year house rent was defaulted on by one of his flaky flatmates. Said flatmate also caused damage.

The landlord is chasing all the guarantors for payment... My pal had been legally advised that due to what she signed she was technically liable for any default by any of the flatmates. She had not realised this.

It appears they will just go after whichever guarantor they think they can get money from
Horrid situation... Her son had never met flatmate before.