Is it now the norm for landlords to require guarantors for tenants in graduate jobs?

[MadridMadridMadrid]

Question as per thread title really. Prompted by a thread on WIWIKAU on which someone commented that even after your DC have graduated and has got a full-time job, it will be impossible for them to rent anywhere if Mum and/or Dad don't agree to be guarantors on the tenancy. DS graduated this year. He's currently living at home, but it's well within the bounds of possibility that he might move elsewhere and look to rent, so I'm just wondering what others' experiences have been. NB I know that the London rental market is crazy these days, so would be grateful if any responses could say whether you are talking about London or elsewhere.

Graduates are just as likely to default on rent as anyone else. A friend rented her house out to three doctors while she was working abroad. Rent stopped after three months.

There’s lots of similar posts on WIWIKAU, but I was on one of those yesterday, might have been the same one. I think it’s highly likely they will, lots of rentals require guarantors now irregardless of who/where you are in your career. There are alternatives to parents being the guarantor though. Guarantor services are available from specialist companies, at a cost obviously.

Yes, and has been for a long time in London.

It depends on their salary and possibly renting history.
I understand the reasons why a landlord might want to ensure that a tenant can afford the rent, but even so, it doesn’t feel right that the landlord bears no risk when they are the ones who profit.
We had to guarantee rent for DS2 when he was earning around 30k and renting a room in a shared house from a commercial landlord ( expensive SE ) - there was no option if he wanted somewhere to live. He now rents a flat in the midlands, although the rent is more, his wages have increased, and he wasn’t asked for a guarantor.
It makes it very difficult for people who don’t have guarantors, or whose parents don’t have sufficient surplus income to be able to do this.
The rental market is biased very much in favour of the landlord at the moment, so it’s not just a question of looking for somewhere else.

We are late forties and rented a flat for 6 months in between selling and buying 2 years ago. My husband earns a fairly big 6 figure salary - we had to have a guarantor which ended up being his brother who earns seven times less than him 😂Utterly ridiculous but landlord wouldn’t accept us without it. So not just grads!

We need a guarantor for any house we rented in London and Birmingham. I think it’s normal.

There's many asking fir homeowner guarantors for all tenancies. It's disgraceful.

Depends on salary level. Letting agents tend to have minimum salaries in London for which they need guarantors and which they don't once you earn a certain amount. I have not guaranteed any of my children's rent even at university (at university I paid it and their father guarantee it - I got the worse bit of that deal!).

From memory I thought if you earned about £70k + in London they were unlikely to be asking for guarantees for example but that figure might be completely wrong and obviously depends on the rent of the place concerned. My sons who live at home rent a small house out and there is no guarantor required due to the relatively low rent and the fact both tenants work whereas other tenants the agent put forward who earned less were offered with a guarantor. There is a big difference between inner London high rents and elsewhere.

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like it's now largely become the norm in the rental market to ask for a guarantor as default even in cases where the tenant can provide evidence of being in full-time employment with a salary that's clearly enough to pay the rent. I last rented in the early 1990s. It was very different then. Even for a nice and quite pricey flat in London I wasn't asked to provide a guarantor.

I have rented my entire life and never been asked to provide details of a guarantor, except for a bedsit while I was studying + working full time but that was 30 years ago. Last moved a year ago.

Yes! I am the guarantor for my graduate sibling, they're on a great graduate wage but needed the guarantor.

That's interesting @Linneasweet . Do you mind saying which part of the country you live in?

@justalittlesnoel Is that London/South East or elsewhere?

That’s been the case for years.

Why would being a graduate matter?

My son (masters student) and his 2 friends (first well paid graduate jobs) were each required to provide guarantors for their shared London flat. They also had to have proof of income and be earning more than 60k (collectively) per year. They are all in their 20s.

@MadridMadridMadrid

North West! It was the same ten years ago when I rented as a graduate, my mum had to be the guarantor. She's retired now so it was my turn to do it for my sibling!

Jobs ,wealth and age mean nothing
anyone can and do default on rent irrespective of circumstances

it’s ridiculous to think only poor people don’t pay rent

Because it's being contrasted with students. It's very common to require a guarantor for students, because students typically either don't work or don't earn that much, since their course is in itself full time. Whereas it's harder for many of us to understand in respect of adults working full time.

@theduchessofspork My question was about graduates with full-time jobs, in contrast to students. In the case of a students, if they default on the rent and you get judgment against them, that probably won't get you much further forward in terms of actually recovering any money because most students won't have much in the way of assets or income that you could enforce against. If you get a judgment against someone in full-time work, you've a lot more chance of actually being able to enforce the judgment!

Oh I see - I think it’s increasingly common to have a guarantor up to quite a high level of income, simply because it’s doubles the chances of the landlord getting it back.

We're in London.

When we used to rent out our old house the lettings agent had a checklist of circumstances where they advised we should ask for a guarantor (although we could choose to always require a guarantor or indeed never require one if we wanted). I don't remember the whole list but it included:

• People who didn't have a permanent employment contract, including people in temporary work, the self-employed, people in a probationary period.
• People who had been employed in their current job for less than 2 years. If people were moving to start a new job then that job counted as their current job, not the one they were leaving.
• People with a variable income (possibly when this income would sometimes fall below the affordability criteria).
• People who didn't meet the affordability criteria or possibly people who were within a certain range of meeting the affordability criteria (I don't remember this one exactly).
• People without a British passport.

The advice was mainly focussed on needing a guarantor for the most risky people who were defined largely as people whose circumstances were most likely to change leaving them unable to pay the rent. If people had things like a very poor credit history, CCJs, no paperwork, etc., we were just advised not to rent to them even with a guarantor. This is in the Midlands.

DS2s employer guaranteed his rent (North East) part of the sign on package.

DD is working as a newly qualified doctor in a relatively cheap area a long way from London. We had to complete guarantor forms even before a letting agent would take her and her friend onto their books.

In contrast as a London landlord, agents have never suggested a guarantor except for students, though occasionally for people without steady employment six months rent in advance has been suggested.

And poor people are less likely to be able to rent anyway. No guarantor, unlikely to have 6 months or more in advance. Landlord doesn't want renters in receipt of benefits, little social housing. Perfect storm. A national scandal for a wealthy nation. Everyone should have access to secure affordable housing suitable for need regardless of income.