Horrified at how many parents guarantee rental agreements without reading

[PinkDino33]

This might sound brutal but I am regularly horrified on Mumsnet when I read posts from parents desperately seeking advice because things have gone terribly wrong with the property their child has rented, and they are shocked to discover the full extent of what they and their child are liable for.

Their DS has just found out their flatmate hasn't paid a single month of rent in the 12 months they've lived there.. Does he really have to pay what the other boy owes?

The DD's flatmate is making life hell and her and all the other flatmates want to move out and stop paying... surely this is allowed?

The DS signed up to a house with his friends but now he wants to move back home.. Does he really have to honour this contract and pay the rent for a whole year?!

It's like parents don't really think of a tenancy agreement / guaranteeing a tenancy as being a real contract, and don't know anything about what they've signed.

Is it a joint tenancy agreement? "No idea"
Can you give notice or is it for a fixed period like 12 months? "Don't know"
"I'm going to have a proper read of the contract tonight.."

It's no good properly reading it 6 months after you've signed it!

People seem to think the contract / how it works with the Landlord must be based on fairness.. It's not fair that their child is financially liable because another tenant hasn't paid, so the landlord can't possibly have the right to try and get the money from him. It can't possibly be the case that they've guaranteed the full rent amount and not just their child's - because that would be madness!

Say it's a 6 person property on a 12 month joint agreement with each person paying £750pm.. that's a total rent of £54,000 that you are guaranteeing!!

I say this, not to shame parents but because if there was more awareness of what parents are actually signing this would cease to be the norm amongst estate agents and landlords. You've got tens of thousands of parents every year signing up to these things which no one in their right mind would sign if they actually read and understood the thing!

It's horrible when these things go wrong and you're living with someone who's a nightmare or doesn't pay, so I do sympathise. But if your child is signing up to a tenancy agreement (especially if its a joint agreement and you need to guarantee it!) ask questions, READ the contract, look up terms like 'joint tenancy' online, ask for proper legal advice if you don't understand anything.

To be fair assuming it was Unipol (my son is in Leeds) they are not a normal estate agent. They are a not for profit charity who provide student housing including both private housing and halls of residences. Ds's uni halls were provided via unipol too. Unipol hold regular find a flatmate events but they don't ask for guarantors and there contracts are usually not joint and several.

Going to ask for thread to be closed as apparently suggesting people read legal documents before signing is just too controversial... Who would have thought!

When dd rented in a houseshare in London I took out the guarantor insurance with ONly My Share. Even that still left me potentially liable for thousands as there was a limit but I fugured it would protect me against the most likely scenario of one tenant defaulting for a number of months. I thought it unlikely every single tenant would default the whole contract.

Housing Hands guarantee service is great for students without a UK guarantor or who won't pass the credit check but you are still liable. For a student housing hands ask a parent to co-sign and you are still liable for any defaults.

If it's a hot student rental market then you pretty much have to live with whatever terms the main agents work by - or your child will lose the group they want to live with. Yes, if it was going to make us destitute I would be clear with my child before going to uni or seek guarantor insurance, but dc don't fully understand until they are in the situation. Rooms in private halls will work out more expensive as will living in a different area and commuting, so your choices are pretty limited. In some areas it's literally a lottery to get a house, or viewings are not permitted. Fat chance of getting the agreement changed, they'll just take the next group instead.

Tbh I think that most people actually aware of what they're signing, but when the shit hits the fan they claim not to be in an effort to wriggle out of the contract.

Except you absolutely can do it if you’re desperate and don’t have a guarantor and need a property. I could transfer you my rent now if I wanted to. It’s just not legally enforceable. And it’s ill advised to do it before you sign (as the landlord could rip you off) and the landlord can’t enforce you to do it afterwards even if you said you would.

And after you’ve read it and understood it and there’s still no other options what do we all do then?

My son's second year house had this type of contract and I didn't realise I had guaranteed every tenant in there! Neither had a couple of the other parents tbf so when we got a phone call from the landlord in April saying that Tenant D had not paid rent (he paid 6 months up front as his parents/guarantors were overseas) and we were liable, we spoke to each other and then our kids each had a phone call and that evening three of them sat Tenant D down and stood over him whilst he got his rent payments up to date!

Big lesson for my DS on not letting housemates take advantage!! And for me to read the small print.

I think this is it. I think the horror you pick up on OP is people who just hoped that being a guarantor would be ok but it’s all gone wrong. It doesn’t mean they literally didn’t understand it

You see I’ve been more than happy for my dd to pay rent. She has a room in a lovely house and that’s all good. We could not have foreseen our situation with nightmare flatmate as the contract we signed did not include her. No one had met her. I begrudge paying for a property 4 of the girls are too scared to live in. We pay our bills, we expect nothing for free but I certainly want to take things further when the situation is as it is. As it stands 4 girls are scared to live in a property. They all leave and will have to still pay. Nightmare student gets a 5 bed property to herself.

Same here.
We just signed individually for our own child.

I'm sorry but you didn't read and understand it..! You were unable to answer any questions on your own thread regarding whether it was a joint tenancy or not etc.

It's a trap I don't want more parents to fall into, and which I want more people to put pressure on estate agents / government to change and stop being the norm. Then young people and parents would be so much better off and it would remove huge barriers for working class students.

That's it! That's all I want to do.

I wouldn't know this if it hadn't been pointed out to me by the lawyers in my own family when I was at University. I appreciate many people (maybe the majority?) do not know what the terms of the contract really mean.

I feel like you've come on here to take your situation out on me and I'm not sure what you want from me?

What’s the point of this thread? To look down on people who agree to be guarantors?

Exactly

Don't be daft. Nobody is saying that people shouldn't read the legal documents before signing. Quite the opposite, in fact. I understand them as a landlord because I have dealt with them quite often.

They/we are saying that there still isn't often any realistic choice but to sign when your child needs accommodation once forced to leave halls of residence.

I don't see why pointing this out makes what you say controversial (it isn't). Nor do I see why it means the thread needs to be closed. It could be useful to people whose children are coming up to this stage in their student careers.

I’vetried this. You get nowhere. It’s signor your kid has nowhere tolive.

Also, fyi, you have to provide proof that you’re a homeowner. I wouldn’t have even been allowed to be a guarantor for my son at uni if I were renting.

These have been the norm since I was a student. We are solicitors so understand it thanks 🙄. If nice houses are in short supply and you want to secure one for your child and the majority will sign up to those terms you’ve not got much choice have you? You can determinedly refuse to sign then your kid can’t live with their mates which is a rather hollow victory.

From the replies it seems that maybe there are more people than I thought who fall into the camp of knowing the risks but sadly feeling there's no choice other than to sign.

Yes, my parents very very nearly refused to sign it when I was getting my accommodation for my second year of uni. In the end they accepted there wasn't really a choice.

No, their letting agent communicated the request with the landlord who was absolutely fine with it. It was written into the contract as 25% liability per guarantor. There was an additional admin fee of something silly like 30 quid.

They did the same thing the year after with a different landlord/agent.

But by paying up front it then means that the other tenants become your child’s guarantor. That’s how these leases work so you’d be increasing their rent.

Has the op ever had a university aged child
in a city with accommodation at a premium? It’s very easy when not in a situation to
pontificate - the rest of us sadly are forced to live in the real world…

Really I think that is in doubt as the landlord could end up being fined so I don't think they would be keen and would prefer a guarantor. This is all in the future btw. You can do this atm.

My DD and friends actually asked the EA when they looked around, if they could have individual contracts and were told that all the properties were on joint contracts.

She looked at one house, linked from a uni website that had individual contracts, but they were the 2nd group to look at it and lost out. (They visited in within 2 hrs of speaking to the agents)

I agree with this. And you're usually on the clock because if you don't sign in X amount of time the rental agencies pass it along to the next group waiting and it's back to square one.

None of that stops you reading and understanding the contract.