Landlord now wants one payment, not six. Aibu?

[riddledwith]

My daughter (19) is in her first student rental with 5 uni friends. It is a joint and several contract, with parents as guarantors. The contract was silent about the payment arrangements so they have each been paying their share separately since September. Now the landlord has asked them to make a single payment instead. DD says she doesn't mind volunteering to be the rent contact and collect/pay the money. She says she trusts her friends to pay her. However, aibu, to think they should say no because:

• this is about making the landlord's life easier, not theirs, and they are not required by the contract to agree.
• If one or more of her friends make a late payment, she will either need to delay the whole payment (incurring interest after 2 weeks) or go into overdraft. She will also need to chase her friend for the money which will be stressful.
• Under the current arrangement, if a tenant defaults it will be obvious who the landlord should chase first, but if DD is everyone's rent agent the landlord may chase her (and therefore me) first.

Same. It was one payment every month, each of us paid a quarter.

It's London, so it's £5700 a month (£950 each!), paid by bank transfer directly to his account.

If it wasn't stipulated at the time as part of the contract the LL can only request but not insist on it. DS's 2nd year house was like that -one of the group set up a completely new bank account for everyone to pay into and then to transfer to the LL - there is an element of trust involved in paying anyone but the LL. I would encourage them to refuse.

I was the nominated person when my DD1 shared a flat with fellow students. They paid their money into a separate account i had then i paid the rent. I also did the same with the utility bills. It worked perfectly for 3 years. No issues at all.

I'm of the opposite opinion to a lot of posters.

If I'd just become Guarantor for the rent payments of 5 of my dcs friends then I'd welcome the chance to have additional oversight (through my dc) of what was being paid.

This way you'll be immediately aware of any problems rather than the possibility of a sudden letter demanding the £5k that Student X hasn't paid in the past 5 months.

I was at uni in the 90s. We all payed separately. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to be responsible for everyone else's rent.

I was the rent paying responsible tenant in a house in my 20s. It was a fucking nightmare. Not only did a couple of people bounce cheques/miss payments, the others also treated me like I was responsible for sorting out anything else to do with the house or the LL and when we left one felt like I should give her the share of the deposit she had paid immediately, instead of when the LLs cheque cleared (he was a bastard and I did not trust him not to cancel it). It ruined my friendships with people.

cheques? £10 a month?
Are you posting from 1962?

I suspect landlord is shifty and doesn't have the property properly registered as a HMO.