Joint and several liability for student accomodations - parents acting as guarantors

[CarlaBruni]

Youngest is now going through this again for their second year. We're nervous about signing the guarantor bit as I did get stung for paying the rent for a student who dropped out when my eldest was a student.

I know about Onlymyshare but also see that it has so dodgy reviews. Has anyone successfully used it if needed?

If not, has anyone successfully renegotiated with a landlord - paid the first term in advance or something else?

Argh at typos in the title. 😳

Not used that, sorry. I simply refused to pay to guarantee any other student and when the DDs were looking for private rentals, this was amongst the top criteria.

DD1 was/is at Cambridge, so lived in college for her undergraduate and Masters years and we did not have to guarantee anything. She receives a stipend for her PhD but this was apparently not good enough so I had to step in to guarantee her share. The other parents were equally stroppy so the students did manage to find a number of places which offered guarantors just for one share. She moved 18 months ago and I don't think I had to guarantee it, but she had 2 years' experience in the reference from their old landlord. Now 2 of the household are working professionals and they are all great friends, so it is unlikely there would be an issue.

DD2 rented in her 2nd year which started in 2020. In her university city, joint and several guarantees are not the standard so she had no issue. She then rented from the SU and I only had to guarantee her share. Now she is working and renting alone. I think she passed the credit check on her own and is now fully self-sufficient.

Where are they? My dc were only ever responsible for themselves

Thanks both. She's in London but not central London. It's been difficult for her and friends to find anywhere so really don't want to be the parent who says No here. She's telling me the other parents have signed but she would say that. I'm wondering if we add something about only agreeing to be liable for her share. Surely if all parents were only liable for their child's share, it makes no difference to the landlord?

Like I say, I was stung for a tenant dropping out but that was 9 years ago so didn't know if any kind of insurance existed. Probably less of a worry for 3rd year as should be more established. But this still seems so soon. Really pisses me off the way parents of students are seen as banks for landlords.

There is another company that offers insurance for this. I'll see if I can find it. Failing that, if you are on Facebook, you can join the What I Wish I knew About University Facebook group as the details are on there.

I am no longer in the group as DD graduated a couple of years ago.

https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2025/01/the-renters-rights-bill-more-concerns-for-landlords

Essentially its all change:

"Amendments to the Bill
In advance of the Third Reading of the Bill, the Government announced a number of proposed amendments to the Bill. These included that:

1. Landlords would be prohibited from requesting that tenants pay multiple months’ rent in advance. Instead, the legislation will only allow a landlord to request a tenant pays in advance for each rental period, i.e. monthly rent payable in advance on a specific day of the month.

1. This prohibition is intended to apply to both tenancies and licences and will be unlawful even if the tenant voluntarily offers to pay advance rent.

1. Landlords will be restricted from demanding that a tenant provides a guarantor in certain circumstances, including where the tenant has paid a tenancy deposit, a tenant has paid one month’s rent in advance (i.e. the new maximum rent payable) or if their income is sufficient to pay rent on a reasonable assessment. Guarantors’ liability will also be capped at six months’ rent and they will no longer be liable for rent after the death of a tenant.

1. The new possession ground 4A, which is intended to allow private landlords to recover possession from former students, will not be available if the tenancy was entered into more than six months before the commencement of the tenancy.

The intention of these amendments is to protect tenants from having to “magic up eye-watering sums up front” and safeguard students from being forced to commit too early to housing. Landlords are concerned that the practical effect of these combined changes will severely prejudice lower income groups, as well as international workers and tenants who may not satisfy traditional affordability criteria. This inflexibility is likely to result in tenants who might otherwise have been eligible for renting but who will not now be regarded as suitable for certain properties. There is also a growing risk that landlords will become more risk averse given the lack of financial security and the significant costs and difficulties associated with problematic tenants."

I am not sure whether these amendments survived the third reading of the bill last week. I saw some moaning that the Government had failed to listen to warnings from landlords, so I assume most did. Some of this is bad news for students. One way out of guarantor problems, including overseas students, was to pay rent in advance. It should also put a stop to the mad pre-Christmas dash to find accomodation for the following year, but may just put it back to Easter when exams might be the main concern.

For completeness:
""Ground 4A" refers to a new legal ground for possession in the UK's Renters' Rights Bill, specifically allowing landlords to evict tenants if they need the property for full-time students before the start of the academic year, even if they are not affiliated with an educational institution; essentially, it's a way for landlords to reclaim a property to let to new student tenants when needed.

Key points about Ground 4A:
Student focus:
This ground is only applicable when the landlord wants to re-let the property to full-time students.

Notice period:
Landlords must give tenants at least four months' notice to vacate under this ground.

HMO requirement:
The property must be considered a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

Written statement:
Landlords need to provide tenants with a written statement outlining their intention to let the property to students at the start of the tenancy."

For landlords one big difference between the conservative version of the draft Act and the current one was that the Conservatives had promised in parallel to speed up the court process. So if tenants were in clear breach of their tenancy, were refusing to leave under 4A, or were not paying their rent, a landlord could get them out quickly. The courts are so overloaded that at the moment this can take years, thus greatly increasing the risk landlords are taking. The risk, as yet unquantified, is that landlords may choose to either exit the market or focus on less risky tenant groups.

I wouldn't sign guaranteeing other students, that sounds risky.

Trouble is that many landlords are equally unwilling to take the risk.

The danger is that they then either sell up or rent to working people.

Or that they increase rents to factor in the added risk.

I recently acted as a guarantor for one of my DC. I spoke to the agent about it and they confirmed I would only be responsible for their share of rent, up to the full year of their share. In the guarantor contract, this figure was specified. This satisfied me. I think many guarantor agreements work like this now. It is definitely worth speaking the agent about this before your DC signs a contract. They will have been asked the question many times. Ask by email, so you have an emailed reply. Or ask by phone and ask them to email you with what was said too.

Previously, several years ago it was explained to me that if someone defaults, the agent pursuers THEIR guarantor first. The chances of being pursued for rent of another student were thus reduced….although not nil in this case.

It is worth bearing in mind that today, as guarantor you are guarantor to everyone’s damages and with-holding of the security deposit - as it is impossible to ascertain who has caused the damage.

One thing people like about private student halls that are springing up everywhere, is that students sign individually and are only responsible for themselves and likewise for their guarantor.

I wouldn’t agree to be a guarantor for a joint and severally liable tenancy. Although they may say that they pursue the guarantor of the tenant that has defaulted, in reality, they will chase whoever they think it will be easiest to get the money from. Either take out guarantor insurance or do what we did in this situation and pay 6 months upfront. Just not worth the risk especially if you don’t know the other tenants.

Thanks all. This isn't via an agent but directly with the landlord. Long established - OH has done some Company's House etc searches.

For my eldest, one student dropped out and the agent did go for the first guarantor. Fortunately, he was furious and proactive - between us, we paid the outstanding rent and then recouped it from the student slowly. Quite a sad case but also a pain I'd like to avoid.

I'm "happy" (for peace of mind) to pay for insurance but I'm not sure it's actually that effective so was really wondering if anyone had needed to make a claim and how straightforward it was. I think approaching the landlord directly and saying we accept we're liable for our child's rent is our next step.

In London at the moment unless you pay the extortionate rents to go into private halls yo don't have a choice other than to have a joint and several liability.

I used Only My Share. The terms and conditions for Guarantor Insure seemed very restrictive. We didn't claim but a situation arose where I thought I might have to claim and they were very helpful with information. However, it didn't progress as it was near the end of the tenancy and the landlord didn't pursue.