£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?

It is nothing to do with the salary. They are mitigating against your possibly loss of employment.

Say they are dead?

I understand that, but landlords shouldn’t be allowed to get away with these bullyboy tactics. They are in business, business involves an element of risk, they get rewarded with profit for taking that risk. If you mitigate all aspects of the risk away, why should the landlord be rewarded with a profit? I know I’m viewing this through rose tinted glasses, I’m fortunate in that we own our house, but our children have rented properties whilst at university, and to the horror of our children I have tackled rogue landlords who take advantage of those in the unfortunate position of needing them

As a landlord myself the guidance currently is for tenants to show evidence of 2.5x income of the rent IF not able then a guarantor 3x that of the rent. The two are not needed. We do ask for a guarantor regardless of the tenant status but if the tenant has proven income we don’t ask that guarantor to also show income, it’s simply a back stop in case the tenant defaults. Often good tenants say we don’t have a guarantor and we accept they’re a good standard and so don’t push for one. You are a rare good tenant, the standard of tenants lately are very poor, houses wrecked to the cost of over £10k due to having to replace joists and floor boards, dog faeces down the bath plug hole. Another property sub let to a drug gang who turned it into a cannabis farm digging under the house and bypassing the electric meters risking the whole terrace of houses from fire. And yes you can debate greedy landlords profiteering with me and I’ll tell you many examples of how it’s not that one sided.

Do you not take out landlords’ insurance?

Which is unlikely for most given rent takes up over 25% of the average wage.

in our case it’s 70%

BatildaB · 22/06/2023 17:38
Can you ask in return for a check that the landlord’s mum can cover any repairs that the landlord can’t stretch to?

Absolutely love this! 😂👍🏻

I completely agree with you, it’s just the reality vs what should happen. its one reason the BTL industry has boomed, it’s seen as risk free.

We had to be guarantor for all our three children at the same time, and no we couldn't have afford them if it had all gone wrong at the same time. Utter madness.

Yes of course. But do you know how much the insurance paid for the cannabis farm that cost £15k+ to repair? Nothing. They don’t pay out for criminal activity. We even had to pay £5k to have the electricity restored to the whole road and the road was dug up for a week. The latest where a tenant has caused £10k of damage the insurance paid out £2k. We have to be insured and pay huge premiums but they don’t cover all costs in all eventualities.

Ridiculous. Mine and DHs combined income is 70k and we didn't need guarantors for our property (£1100 pm).

@1onway1under12and1over18

We rent very nice family homes - and have done for 20 years (many reasons for this and we choose to live in very nice places and areas) we have a perfect track record of paying several thousand a month for 21 years and are late 50s and reasonably high earners. No kids at home, no pets. Extremely referencable. I would tell you to stuff your guarantor because asking my 83 year old FIL would be embarrassing. Surely this is a very individual thing depending on circumstances and track records.

So you’re basically asking a guarantor to sign a blank cheque and take all the risk for your business? Fuck that for a game of soldiers, if you’re not prepared to take the risk you shouldn’t be in the game.

Erm not quite sure you have got the gist. We do take the risk and we do end up paying out huge sums on occasions to rectify damage done or tenants that haven’t paid. In some cases guarantors have refused to pay in other cases the tenants didn’t give a guarantor.

Well any forgot that as a single female you can’t be trusted with money. That is ‘a mans job’. The landlord probably wouldn’t ask if you had a husband.

*Don’t forget that should have said!

Single man are asked to provide guarantors too. The landlord probably wouldn’t ask if she had a wife either.

It does vary. DD2 19, student let with BF and she doesn't need a guarantor. I was surprised tbh. DD1 when she got her first flat post grad in London, we did guarantor, but she has had two rentals since, and neither needed guarantors.

I was being sarcastic 😁

I must be rare. Pay on time every time (over £250,000 in my time renting). Look after the property better than if it were my own as I hate the judgement. Over the years I’ve; replastered, reroofed, repainted (the original colours), I’ve replaced fence panels, dealt with fallen trees, fixed hot water and boilers, replaced cookers (x3), replaced cupboard doors when they’ve flaked. I have a carpet cleaner that I use every 6-8 weeks.

honestly. More are like me than those you’ve encountered there’s millions like me.

Single men over the age of 35?

Hmm I wonder.

Neither of those are the case. We’re good landlords. Treat people well, at the start of the tenancy the house is clean, mould free, new carpets, newly painted, new white goods, sometimes new bathroom & occasionally new kitchen units, we rent a little below market value, don’t use agencies, keep rent at same price for many years until that tenant leaves and then we remarket it. We take references, do all the relevant checks yet still have issues with the properties.