To have been so annoyed by this selfish people and to warn people from being guarantors ?

[Spice22]

Come back from holiday and catch up on my guilty pleasure ; Can't pay, we'll take it away!

In this episode, the parents signed as guarantors for their daughter's rent. She owes the landlord £3000. High court enforcement has gone to the parents, as the guarantors, to ask for the money. You can tell thy are only just making ends meet. Long story short , the daughter tells the parents "It's your debt, you pay it".

Genuinely shocked and angry on their behalf. How is it even ok that the parents are the ones threatened with losing their possessions, before they've threatened the daughter ??

Then another one shows a gentleman having to pay back more than £60k because he was a guarantor !

AIBU to be so shocked ,and annoyed, that such selfish and ungrateful people exist ?

Exactly 24 balloons - but on the other hand you can't really beware meaningfully, because your dc can't rent without a guarantee! And In practice you can't really check out the other student tenants, or insist your dc doesn't share with anyone. In some cases, dparents have no choice but to take the risk.

I suppose you should also insist that you'll only guarantee if all the other dparents do - so that all the students have the same incentive to be responsible rather than landing their parents in it.

I'm in the situation that I've part inherited a house.

I'm on benefits because of serious illness, that started in October. I need 9k to own the house outright.

I've landed in the position that I'm in, because of being Widowed and two of my children having SN (which has limited my working hours). We lost our home, partly because of my DHs illness and being shafted on the endowment policy (1998).

I can get a secured loan, with a Guarantor. I top up my rent, more than the loan would cost (because I'm not on IS).

My two Adult DDs (both under 22) would start to pay me 'keep', so i'd have a buffer for repairs. I'm good at living frugally and saving.

I was a CP SW and can easily find work if I'm well, if I'm not then I can claim PIP (application in at present).

Not all individuals that can't get credit/rentals and need a Guarantor are feckless.

I'm on the lowest income that I can be, I'm less risk than someone who can be made redundant, or get sacked.

I don't have anyone that will act as a Guarantor, yet this is a cheaper option than me renting and it means a 'forever home' for my DD, who won't live independently.

There needs to be flexibly in lending, which is supposed to be happening because of Brexit.

Chikara

Yes to both of your questions. I do have my own (mortgaged) house but I didn't supply any details about my income/assets, just signed a form.

What's a charging order that could be made against a property?

Before I met DH, my then boyfriend lived with his parents who had just purchased their council house in a very sought after village. An uncle of then BF wanted to start a business, he had form for starting projects and not seeing them through. He asked BF's mother, his sister, to be guarantor for his new venture. Strangely he did not ask his wealthy older brother who had been a successful businessman for many years. To cut a long story short, the business did not suceed and the parents of BF lost their house as the business had been secured upon it. They still live in the same road but as council tenants.

My FIL was guarantor for me and DH for our first house. The bulding society said we did not earn enough to cover the mortgage but we knew with careful budgeting we could afford it. We never defaulted and will be mortgage free next year!

That's very interesting about the mortgage requirements alannah, i hadn't thought of that.

I think really it may demonstrate that relying on private rentals by small lls isn't the best way of organising student accommodation. If it were run by the university, the university would be able to decide to require only individual (ie not joint and several) guarantees and to some extent absorb the risk of defaults (only to some extent - i realise there are huge financial constraints! But spreading the risk across a large group helps). A private ll needing to pay the mortgage and observe the mortgage conditions cannot do that.

But i doubt if there is much pressure for reform - most parents unenthusiastically decide to take the risk , all goes well, and then their dc graduate, so everyone's attention turns elsewhere!

Where I live (and I suspect in many other cities) there's been a boom in companies opening private halls of residence for students. I suspect that it will increasingly become the thing in some cities for students to live in halls (either university-owned or private) for their whole time at university.

My daughter will be staying in halls, here it's £150 a week for a room in some damp shite hole v's £120 a week for a safe clean room next to the uni with an en suite. The buy to let brigade pricing all the ftb's out can rot, they aren't having my money

Sometimes you need a guarantor though, otherwise you can't rent somewhere! When DP and I moved into our first rent flat after living in house shares the landlord wanted a minimum joint salary of something like £35k. We were on something between £30-£35k and they weren't flexible so my mum was our guarantor. We have never missed our rent, even though when we first lived there it would have been close to 50% of our monthly income

Ultimately it's like any legal document. Read it first and understand it, don't sign it until you do. And if someone who is a flaky idiot asks you to be guarantor then run, even if it's your own children

NotDavidTennant that may be true students living in cheaper cities, unfortunately it's never going to be an option in London & there are many universities here. The one I work at has around 28,000 students. I honestly don't know how they can afford to live.

StarOnTheTree - If someone cannot pay a debt - whether their own or one they have guaranteed - the person who is owed money can apply to get a charge set against the house of the person who owes the money.

So if your DD couldn't pay and then you couldn't pay the Landlord could put a legal order against your house. When you sell your house, legally the people who have these orders against a property are paid first. (First is usually a mortgage company, second will be any debts secured against the home). You, the homeowner, get what is left.

If it is a large amount of money the courts can force you to sell if you do not repay the debt. Sometimes they will accept instalments until the debt is paid and the order is then removed. The CAB link is quite good.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/charging-orders/

Ndtennant that is starting to sound like a good option!

Though i have read that some of the private purpose built student halls (in london, this is) are high spec, high cost - whereas what many students really need are low spec (ie shared bathroom, small rooms) and low cost. But the market seems to be there in london for more luxury, so developers may find that more profitable.

Looks as though it's well worth checking out accommodation options when choosing universities - which of course is sensible advice anyway, regardless of the guarantee question.

Thanks for explaining Chakira

That's ok Star
The high spec, high cost will have a market as there are enough wealthy people, especially in London, or foreign students who are rich enough to pay full fees anyway.

Depending on price difference it might be worth it for less hassle especially if student could work too.

NotDavid. They have built loads of privately owned student appartments where I live. However they're so expensive and unnecessarily high spec. The students live better than they would at home. No wonder these students have unrealistically high expectations for employment upon graduation. I lived in places with no central heating when I was a student. Pretty standard early 90's where I studied.

Dh and I are landlords. We once had tenants with a guarantor. They defaulted once just over a year after moving in and then paid again. Young couple with a child, parents picked up the tab - fair enough I thought, one off. Then shortly after they had another child, they just stopped paying. After 6/7 weeks, the tenants clearly had no intention of paying again. So the parents were chased for the money and reluctantly agreed to pay. It got really heated and they were threatened with court. It was awful. The parents agreed to house them if I served notice. No way was I going to be the unscrupulous landlord letting these irresponsible idiots bankrupt the daughters parents. I wouldn't rent to tenants needing guarantors again. I just hadn't thought of the full implication. When dh and I had a look at the front of the house, there were a couple of empty nice quality wine bottles and a few beer cans. Obviously a nice social life took priority over essentials such as paying rent

Same happened to me with my student house - dad was happy enough to sign for me but he refused to be jointly liable for all five of us if we all defaulted on rent. They refused to amend it so in the end dad just paid my whole years rent upfront and then didn't need to sign anything. I then paid him back over the year - however obviously we were lucky to be able to afford to do that, lots of people wouldn't have.

This is why I rent to students using the university as the letting agent.

I've seen that episode and felt so sorry for the parents. Hope they disinherited the worthless piece of shit that was the daughter.

I saw that episode earlier this year, the daughter was shocking in her attitude to her parents. I've been guarantor twice, all good but I won't do it again, both times were for my girls, I did it to help them out and they are grateful for that help. They have both moved houses since , one has got onto the property ladder and the other is still rented acc but has a new landlord so I am no longer guarantor for them. I knew they'd never let me down.

One of my friends asked me to be guarantor for her son, he wanted to buy a car on finance, I turned him down as I thought if you can't afford this neither can I. Also the fact his own mother said no to him spoke volumes.

I've had tenants who we required to have a guarantor. It was one of those situations where we really liked them but she had a few (admittedly historic ) CCJs etc, and the guy had just moved down and was looking for work (albeit it in a field where it's easy to find) but if things went against them it would have been hard for them to make the rent. We've had no problems in 4 years so in this instance the availability of a guarantor (her dad) made it possible.

However, people who stand guarantor need to understand what it means. I'd only do it for my kids and even then, only if I could afford to lose it.

I manage a flat and anyone who wants it (it's solid but scruffy, in convenient but dodgy area) invariably fails a credit check because they allegedly don't earn enough (anyone earning enough would live elsewhere). So I have to ask for guarantors.

I've also been guarantor (or rather read all the paperwork and agreed for DP to be one) for a couple friends. The landlord has a duty to mitigate their loss, eg by allowing another tenant to move in, but there's a huge difference between being a guarantor and giving a reference!

Unfortunately that is why I would not be a gurantor. I would rather give my kids the money if I have,to help them with a flat/house, than be the gurantour.

It is interesting that there are examples on this thread of two lls who have agreed to waive the joint guarantee provided the tenant pays the ll his entire share for the year in advance. That still doesn't guarantee the ll the remainder if the other tenants don't pay, so in a way I wouldn't have expected them to agree.

It may be that in both cases all the other dparents have agreed a joint guarantee so ll doesn't really need another. Definitely something to try though if the dparents can afford it.

Pisssssedofff Most universities cannot give all their students a room in hall for three years. You may find yourself guaranteeing rent to an ftb owner yet. Of course if your DD is responsible the LL still won't see your money - only hers.

if you are a homeowner believe me: when you come to sell - or when your executors come to sell - you will not care about the status of a buyer: ftb, current owner changing, or btl, it will all be the same to you as long as you get the price.

Do you know what some of us have ethics and when I sell my house it will be to a deserving candidate knowing I could be a right cnut and get more for it another way but I like to sleep at night

Thinkingblonde so the mum didn't want to take the risk but had the nerve to ask you ?!

I seem this episode. It broke my heart. That Heidi was a disgrace doing that to her parents