Shared housing - providing guarantor

[Maggiethecat]

Dd has found a place with 4 mates for second year.
We've has the letting agents’ request for guarantor’s details but am wondering what’s the best way of dealing with this.

Am concerned about giving a personal guarantee - does that mean we’ll be jointly and severally liable for her flatmates (and their guarantors - I’m presuming they’ll all be using one)?

Has anyone had to deal with this? Would it be sensible to consider providing rent guarantee if acceptable?

Most student lets and joint and several. You can take out insurance so that you are only liable for your own DC. I used Guarantor Insure.

@RampantIvy - how does that (insurance) work though if I’m party to the contract and am liable for the others too?

www.guarantorinsure.co.uk/

The main thing is to trust your DS has made sensible friends! I guess their parents are thinking they cannot trust your DS too! So ltalk to him about his friends. We just acted as guarantors as we trusted Dd to make sensible friends who would live sensible lives! If they have any issues, DS must be aware of it quickly and sort it out.

@RampantIvy is right.

Don't rely on your DC making decent, trustworthy friends. All of us can be fooled (spend a bit of time in AIBU and it's clear any person of any age can be conned by a lying friend)

My own best mate was in a house share with a "good friend". It took 6 months to find out his "friend" had been pocketing the rent, utilities and council tax money and hiding the debt collection letters as my friend worked full time. And as my friend was a second name on the bills, the companies and council chased HIM for all the debts. He not only had to pay his share again, but also his housemate's unpaid share too as the companies refused to chase the one who didn't want to pay up.

This comes up every year!

You can ask the landlord/ agent to be guarantor for your child’s share of the rent only. They don’t have to agree though.

Alternatively, and what we did, is pay the rent upfront to avoid having to be a guarantor. I appreciate this is not an option for everyone.

@RampantIvy - thanks, I’ll look at that.

@VanCleefArpels - this as well as many other issues new to parents of dc at uni for the first time will come up every year. The board would be redundant if you didn’t have recurring questions

As @RampantIvy says, it would be very unusual not to be asked to provide a guarantor and even more unusual for a student tenancy not to be joint and several. WIWIKAU has a list of reputable companies for guarantors' insurance.

Most students pay the rent direct to the LL. So no friend can pocket that. They don’t pay Council tax. They are jointly liable for utilities. Often each student
gets one utility in their name. Then collects money from others and pays the bill in front of them. If you are living closely with people it does pay to know something about them! Every time.

I think using bill sharing apps for utilities is far more usual these days - the problem with each person having a bill in their name is what happens if one housemate for whatever reason can’t pay their share? The account holder is therefore at risk of having to cover that. With bill sharing apps each person is separately liable due a fixed amount each month.

@VanCleefArpels
Fair enough. It is also an issue on an app if one person doesn’t pay. The house bill won’t be paid in full so it’s still an issue. There’s not really an escape from trusting other students.

Thanks for all the suggestions here.

@TizerorFizz - I expect that Dd will have sensible friends but I am fully aware that these are people that she’s known for 2-3 months hardly enough time to get to really know someone. Separately, in some cases there may be difficulty paying rent due to changed financial circumstances not necessarily because of wilful intent to default.

So, I’m really just looking to protect myself from any of these circumstances.

The insurance is looking like a sensible option.

Students receive their loans (frequently) when the rent is due. Therefore not to pay would be willful as it’s the start of term. Bills, as they go along, is more problematic if Dc have spent all their money or parents are not coughing up. I know they haven’t had long to really know anyone but they can avoid known boozers and drug takers. They can suss out who seems to be sensible and like minded. I think you are worrying too much but of course some Dc don’t have great antennae. Just general chit chat about families usually elicits some info.

When DD was in her second year house share bills were included in the rent. Due to the increase in energy costs I suspect that most landlords aren't doing this any more.

DD and her friends used a bill splitting company (The Bunch) for her third year house share. It was a little more expensive than each taking a utility, but each student was only responsible for their own share so there would be no impact on the others. Fortunately it all worked out.

I think a lot of students (certainly judging from MN) use their loan for living expenses while parents pay some or all of rents so a parent having financial difficulties is a separate matter.

You also don’t have to be a booze/drug taker to have financial issues or indeed to lack integrity.

I’m really not worrying, just taking precaution in a situation where people, even with the best intentions, can fall into difficulty.

This is foolhardy.

Students are typically very young adults. No matter how well you think you know them, it’s a time of major life transition and stress.

when I was in university I was about to move into a share that included someone I had known for 10 years. He dropped out of school 2 days before we were due to move in, leaving us stuck for his share of the rent. We got lucky that we were able to find someone to take his room relatively quickly, but we definitely didn’t know our new member of the share very well.

Well you didn’t know the former member of the house either - after 10 years. Parents have been guarantors for decades. It’s how it works. You really would know if someone drank all the time and was unreliable. Obviously everyone can find an anecdote about an unreliable person but most dc are reliable and do pay their bills. Many parents don’t take out insurance. They are trusting their Dc.

I’m sure you’ll find most situations do work out but there are probably a fair few that don’t.

Nothing to do with not trusting Dd, people can fall into financial difficulty. For the sake of extra peace of mind I’m happy to pay a relatively small insurance premium. They wouldn’t exist if there was no need for them.