£75k salary, landlord wants parents as guarantors

[Sadleaver]

I'm 35, earn £75k a year in a stable industry, as a permanent member of staff. I've been renting for 12 years and have glowing past landlord references. Excellent credit score.

Just agreed a new tenancy on a flat after a stressful 6 week hunt. It's £1250pm. Passed all the reference checks. And the letting agent is now asking for my PARENTS to be guarantors! I have to provide evidence of their income and it has to be above a certain amount. I'm honestly done with this bullshit. This is insane right?

I think you should get in touch with ARLA who will advise you.

My husband had this when he was early thirties and similar salary. He said let me get this right you want my dad a teacher and my mum a nurse to guarantee my rent as a solicitor! In the end it was resolved by him paying 6 months upfront!

Single professional female making 75k, 12 years in the job and glowing references from ex landlord? They're not going to find a better Tennant than you OP so I would tell them to do one and find another place. I would go to the lengths of contacting the owner of the place and letting him know about crazy requests from agent, that your parents are retired and this is utterly ridiculous.

@MsFogi

I think your age/parents age are irrelevant - basically, landlords are asking for guarantors from everyone and anyone (that way they have no risk - if you run off/don't pay they can turn against the guarantor).

@rwalker

Smart move from LL it’s irrelevant how much you earn you could still be a twat and not pay or cause £1000’s of pounds of damage.... Guarantors give them a bit of leverage.

@MsFogi

I think your age/parents are irrelevant - basically, landlords are asking for guarantors from everyone and anyone (that way they have no risk - if you run off/don't pay they can turn against the guarantor).

See I don't understand comments like this. A few posters have said similar. These landlords are supposedly desperate for a guarantor to 'eliminate risk' and to make sure they don't lose money/have someone to cough up if the tenant doesn't pay.

But how do they know the GUARANTOR isn't going to refuse to pay, or be unable to pay? They may lose their job, they may leave the area and not be contactable, and as I said, they may just refuse to cough up!

It's naïve and foolhardy for ANY landlord to assume if someone has a guarantor, that means they are guaranteed the rent, and any damages will be paid. There are no guarantees in life for anything.

We let a property and the agency have said this is pretty standard now with covid etc where the number of people who claimed they couldn't pay, suddenly found the money when the agency said they would have to call in the guarantor

Few years ago when I was 28 and mu bf was 37 and we were working full time they needed guarantors. My parents were not accepted cause they're foreigners and my bf's dad didn't really want to be one. But then they found out my bf owned a property then they were suddenly very happy and not caring about any guarantors at all.

There's another thread about how crazy it was for people to get interest free mortgages, given the rental market in the UK, I'd get a 100% mortgage rather than rent a flat .

I was a tenant for over a decade. I was never asked for this but we did pay 3/6 months up front.
You can now get a renters mortgage using your rent history as proof of suitability. I am sorry I have forgotten the building society.
Tell the agent you mum is a pensioner, your dad overseas. Not suitable or necessary. And I agree I don't like the sound of the landlord. I had 9 only two were decent.

What if you were a looked after child? Ask them if they would require the same from Michael Gove, a man separated from his wife who was not brought up by his biological parents. To give an example.

Please OP if you can, name the letting agent, so we can all complain about them to ARLA and the local trading standards office.

Landlords really do want all the benefits with ZERO risk don't they? 🙄

This is madness. Surely they have insurance that pays if someone doesn't pay. Loads of people by the time they're 35 don't have living parents or their parents are retired. a lot of people simply don't have someone they could ask. I thought this was what insurance was for - eliminating risk. As if it isn't bad enough for renters as it is. Completely ludicrous. We wouldn't have been able to find a guarantor - but then we have a daft amount of money in savings (sold a house and haven't bought another yet) so maybe they weren't bothered. We're lucky our landlord wasn't so ridiculous about it.

Asking for a guarantor regardless of passing affordability checks is becoming more commonplace now. Although, they usually ask for a UK homeowner, rather than specifying parents. This is because even high earners can and do stop paying rent, so it's like an insurance policy for the LL to make sure the tenant pays. It does sound OTT but honestly, so many people stop paying rent, I know someone earning £200K/yr and rent was only £775/mth and they stopped paying. It costs a Landlord a lot of time and money, along with loss of income to evict non-paying tenants so this helps prevent those situations occuring.

If you don't want to ask your parents, do you have a family member, friend or boss that would be guarantor?

As a landlord, I’d say YANBU, this is crazy!

Maybe ask if this is the landlord, or the agency pushing this. A lot of agencies aren’t very good.

Although, I do think there may be a correlation with the scrapping of Section 21s to evict (no fault eviction).

On the landlord forums many landlords are now being much more careful about who they let out too, as if things go wrong it’s more difficult to resolve. And evicting because of non payment of rent is costly and difficult.

Even with a Guarantor in place, it's still not zero risk. They are running a business, plain and simple. They provide a service and as with other business owners, they do so as a source of income. It's a large financial investment for them, why wouldn't they do their best to protect their investment?

It's standard now unfortunately

@BatildaB

That made me laugh.

If you’re in an area where demand for rentals significantly outstrips supply and LLs are in a position to pick and choose tenants then being hard nosed they can try to insist on belts and braces of a high income professional and a guarantor - whilst many people can’t do this it does give them another line of recourse. Wildly frustrating for the Op of course.

I'd be tempted to email back and ask if they'd mistakenly sent you a generic email for students/ young professionals.

Say your salary far exceeds that of your close to retirement mother, and would they be able to check with the landlord that they would prefer someone with a stable, professional career on a good salary to step away from the rental because of a silly request from the letting agent?

I strongly suspect this is something the letting agent is pushing - under the guise that it offer additional security to LLs. They are almost certainly charging the landlord extra for arranging guarantors and guarantor paperwork, this they are applying it to all tenants regardless of how dumb it is.

Madness! But (in our area anyway) rental properties are like gold dust currently so I wouldn’t be turning it down over this.

Speak to the agent and see what they’d accept. Maybe 6 months upfront, if that’s possible for you. Or surely the guarantor doesn’t actually have to be your parent, do you have a friend that would qualify? It’s a big ask though!

People don't want to be guarantors though, people can probably pay their rent upfront, that's what DS will have to do

Not paying rent would not be a no-fault eviction

OP, the other topic of this thread is why someone in their mid-30s on a 75k income has to rent (because I assume it's not really a choice of yours?).

No it was £65 a night and I did it for three months - I live in Brighton and then moved into a house share that a friend of mine owned and didn't want references, deposit or anything thank god

Maximum is £250k which would buy nothing where I live.