To worry about my son's "joint and several" tenancy agreement?

[mozzybytes]

My son is going into Year 2 of uni and has found a student flatshare in London with 4 friends. I will be paying his rent and will be his guarantor for this and any further liabilities. It is a "joint and several" liability tenancy agreement which means that all tenants/guarantors are collectively responsible e.g. if one or more tenants doesn't pay their share of the rent or causes any major damage. I understand this type of tenancy agreement is very common these days, but it worries me. Aibu?

Don't sign up for that there must be a better alternative, dont put yourself in a position that could mean you paying for someone elses rent.

Will all of the tenants have guarantors?

Don't sign, ask for an amendment to the contract.

ooooo no! Absolutely would not catch me signing that. Not a prayer

Unless you have the spare finances to bankroll rent and damages that could amount to eye watering sums, I would be slamming on the brakes.

Most guarantor agreements have this as standard unfortunately
you can speak to the letting agent but they are, IME unlikely to change a standard contact

This is really common for flat shares and your ds will probably struggle to find something else with an alternative tenancy agreement.

It’s easy to say oh don’t sign it but realistically if you don’t, where is he going to live

Yes came to say this. Unless he stays in halls he’s unlikely to find an alternative

It is very common. You can get guarantor insurance.

I think you can take out guarantor insurance

This takes me back 25 years!! One of our “friends” changed her mind about moving into our agreed house share and the rest of us for stiffed with her share of the rent until we found a replacement!! Appalling behaviour on her part.

Don’t sign this!

I had to sign one of these for DS, was glad when the year was over!

This is one of the most stressful things about having kids at uni - the idea that any of their flatmates could default and the letting agent has the option to pursue any of the guarantors for payment.
I signed it once but wouldn't again unless I had insurance - when my dc were at uni I didn't even know that existed!

You can try to specify to the letting agent that you will act as guarantor to your own child but you want it written in that your liability is limited to them alone. But there's not enough property for the number of renters so it's a landlord's market.

They all have guarantors, but they are only known to the estate agent - I don't have their contact details so if all the tenants did a disappearing act and left me with the full £4k monthly rental I wouldn't know who to chase.

Often there's little alternative , especially if you want your child to share with the friends they've chosen. Refusing can leave them without anyone to live with.

I've had to sign these 4 times (2 x DC, both for second and third year house shares). There are things you can do to reduce the risk.

Each time I talked to DC about who they were proposing to share with. Howwell did they know them? Did all of them seem committed to their course, attending lectures and handing work in regularly? Then before signing, I had a form from the agency showing all the student names and home addresses. I googled them all, looked at StreetView to see if they looked like genuine family homes. I asked DC what the parents did and if they had met them? If DC said any of the other parents had their own company, I checked the accounts filed at Companies House to see if they were solvent.

The agency told me if the worst were to happen, they'd go after the person who had defaulted (and their parents) first. Then if no joy, they check the others out and go for the one's most likely to be able to pay in turn. I reckoned I would be in the lowest income group, so gritted my teeth and took the risk.

Nobody ever dropped out or didn't pay rent, but I'm mighty glad that stage is over!

Contact details should be on the draft contract they send you to sign. That's where I was able to do some research.

I've got the tenants' names, email addresses and phone numbers, but not the details for their guarantors.

This is why we encouraged Dc to go into private halls despite the cost. That way I am only responsible for them as a guarantor and no one else. They can still be with friends, but each person has their own tenancy agreement for that one room plus the rooms are identical en-suites so no one gets a smaller room. It is completely shit for house shares. I believe there has been some postings about this on the Higher Education board where people have talked about making sure they are only being a guarantor for their child alone even in a shared house.

No. Don’t sign. You can ask for the lease to state your DC is only individually liable and you would be as guarantor. That’s what I have for my Uni student

As has been said, this is very common. We had to do this with dd, as no other way around renting private accommodation where she was studying.

You can get guarantor insurance for this. My son was one of five in a London flatshare at uni and I definitely didn't want to be landed with the bill for all of it. The insurance was around £100 for the year and was worth every penny for peace of mind.

Guarantor insurance sounds the way to go then. I wasn't aware of it (though my youngest only finished last year).

Could you insist on all 4 paying for some sort of insurance that would cover damages? Are all the parents being guarantor?

I've seen 3 DC through uni and I made it clear from the start that there was no way I was getting into these tenancy arrangements.
Luckily all of mine managed to find HMOs where each room was let separately. With no liability for damage caused by others.
You don't have to sign this, but he has left it very late in the day to find something else.