AIBU not to be guarantor for DC?

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DC is in first year at Uni, and currently trying to secure accommodation for next year.
He's found a studio flat and is planning to share it with his DP (also a student).
The rent is ~£14k a year(!) They can probably just about manage that between them, but neither one could afford that alone.
He's asked me to be a guarantor, but I am VERY uncomfortable with this. I can barely afford my own rent as it is... and I really don't want to risk getting into that kind of debt should things go wrong (i.e. they split up, one or both drop out, they piss all their rent money away etc.).
I feel horrible about it, but would I be unreasonable to tell him no?

This is a ridiculous amount of rent for a second year student. I paid £240 a month in my second year of uni 10 years ago

Was that in London? Even if it was prices have gone up a lot in the last 10 years.

Here is Imperial College's suggested budget based on the average costs of their current students (£177 per week for rent and utilities):

www.imperial.ac.uk/parents/fees-and-funding/living-costs/

There are some utterly out of date comments on this thread.

In London you cannot get student halls for 3 years. Only the first year. Unite and other providers have student flats and they are expensive - it’s London. House shares won’t be much cheaper. You simply won’t get anything at some of the low prices quoted! They are not London and not suitable for students.

Lastly - students don’t pay Council tax. If posters don’t know the rules, don’t waste time posting rubbish. The bills in studio flats are negligible and some rents include wi fi and heating. My DDs did. So sometimes £700 a month is all in except food.

My DD paid £500 a month in Bristol 6 years ago. No bills included. The idea that there are cheap rents for students isn’t true. Also I wanted my DDs to live somewhere decent. I didn’t want dodgy landlords, dodgy flats and no maintenance carried out.

See if you can be a guarantor and do ignore some of the ill informed rubbish on here from posters who have never had student DC in the modern age and are so tight it’s painful to read.

That Imperial quote is about right. £7500 for probably 42 weeks not 52. It’s LONDON!

Everywhere my dd looked needed a guarantor, caused a right pain as I'm not eligible to be one.

My DD paid £500 a month in Bristol 6 years ago

That's more than my Ds pays in Bristol now and that's with a good landlord who has fitted a new bathroom and kitchen and buys new mattresses between tenancies. They are staying on next year for their third year, it's £350 a month each in a house share in Clifton for three of them.

Paid 400 each - 8 of us in a house
10 years ago!
14k isn’t a lot
Do you trust dc? I always needed a parent to sign but we each paid for a our own rooms separately. So our parents each just guarantored their dcs room.

Just reread and saw it’s a studio
That does sound like a disaster waiting to happen tbf

Tell him he can look forward to having a 'DP' when he has a job that enables him to pay his own rent. Meanwhile, he has a fairly new girlfriend who can sort herself out while he lives in halls or a houseshare.

Holymoly.

No chance. Yes students often need a guarantor, but most student property at most is £120pw, at most I saw for some lovely studios was 150/180pw. Unless hes looking at top end posh studios in the middle of london that it should cost over 1200 per month!

If your dc cant afford it on their own I definitely wouldn't guarantor it just incase theres a relationship breakdown which wouldn't be unusual in student couples and thus leaves you to lump almost the entire bill.

If you HAVE to guarantor make sure its something your dc could if there relationship breaks down, and have a stern talk to him about what you expect for them, eg rent is paid first and the money put aside for them to pay it as you risk losing your own house otherwise. Your dc is a adult so I would be Frank with them about the consequences on you, and that 14000 a year is too much of a risk.

Me and my hubby for a small terrace in the midlands dont even pay that much a year including all our Bill's and expenditure

Re: my previous post didnt realise it was london, my friends in uni in the midlands all pay between 60-170pw, but I'm aware in London it is more. But I still stand by not guarentoring 1200k per month. Sometimes you gotta live in your means and accept that the hugely expensive swanky student builds for only for those who are fortunate to have a lot of extra money behind them, the rest of the students have to look for accommodation that is as feasible within their student finance + maybe a little working. That is the harsh reality of adulthood and also of choosing more expensive areas for university unfortunately >.< you have to acknowledge you will likely get less for your money and make more compromises

I very much doubt that these swanky student studios will allow two people to share one studio.
Another problem about two people living in such a small space is condensation.
All in all, a really bad plan, regardless of the cost factor.
Many people on here are very very out of touch with the price of London accomodation, and the cost of daily travel too.

@TigerOnATrain I did search by lowest price first actually I was looking for flatshares this summer before I got a flat with my partner so I know the drill thanks.

The majority of those you found were either not central London as you were saying or sharing a bedroom. Add on commuting costs from those areas and you may as well leave more centrally but somewhere a bit more expensive.

I feel a bit sorry for OP's child if she takes any notice of some of the "advice" on this thread. Considering that many threads on Mumsnet discuss the incredible costs of living in London it is a bit laughable that so many posters seem so ignorant about it. OP's son is not being extravagant. That's the usual price in London. Suggestions that he can just live in halls for 3 years are also quite ignorant. Most universities don't have enough accommodation for that.And while I can understand and why OP doesn't want to be a guarantor that's part of being a parent unfortunately if your child is a student and you actually want to help them get a degree. Nobody wants to guarantee the rent for their child but if you don't they wouldn't be able to live anywhere. All you can do do is make sure that your child is not joint and separately liable and that you are not guaranteeing someone's else's rent.

@woodchuck99 how is OP going to pay for her son's rent when she can barely afford her own? It's naïve to just assume it will never happen.

Most decent children would simply never let it happen. I can imagine in a scenario being envisaged that the kids split up the son will get two jobs, extra shifts etc rather than land his mum in the shit

I would never be a guarantor. If rent can't be paid, doesn't that leave you a £14k bill (up to) to pay

£600 a month doesn't seem too bad to me - I don't think he'll find anything much cheaper (unless perhaps they share a double room in a shared house). As others have pointed out, the problem is that you are liable not just for his £600, but also hers.

@woodchuck99 how is OP going to pay for her son's rent when she can barely afford her own? It's naïve to just assume it will never happen.

I'm not assuming it will never happen but most children wouldn't put a into the position of having to pay all their rent if it meant the parent could end up homeless themselves. Unless OP has any particular reason for distrusting him surely surely it is worth trusting her own child so that he doesn't have to leave university.

That's so expensive! If you can't afford it then you can't end of,

You cannot afford to pay both rents so your answer has to be no. Sharing a studio with his GF? Dream on!

I wouldn't be guarantor for the whole lot. Can they not house share with others to keep costs down?

Most decent children would simply never let it happen. I can imagine in a scenario being envisaged that the kids split up the son will get two jobs, extra shifts etc rather than land his mum in the shit

That is my thought to. It wouldn't occur to me that my own child would let me be homeless rather than picking up a few extra shifts so that they could pay the rent. It's not as if they can rent a property without a guarantor.

It’s not overly expensive for London!!! So many of you don’t realise that parents have to help their students by being guarantors. It’s the way it is.

I have not seen decent flats in Clifton Bristol for £85 a week for years! Most decent ones are £100 plus plus (and were 8 years ago).

I don't think I'd be happy being a guarantor for my DS if he was sharing a studio apt with a DP while at uni. I'm assuming they're normal Uni age, so 19/20ish? If so, there's a good chance the relationship won't survive living together. If the worst come to the worst, they split up and DP decides to leave, you could end up liable for their share of the rent.

My DS is looking for uni accommodation at the moment, so I know it's standard to have to be guarantor for your own child in a student house share, but not for the other students. I'd be advising him to look for their own rooms in a shared house. The rent will be considerably cheaper, and if they do split up then at least they'll have their own bedrooms.