Guarantor for halls of residence

[elliejjtiny]

Ds1 has got a place at university. Doing his student finance and sorting his accommodation today and they want a guarantor for his halls of residence. He put my name down and I've just had an email saying they need to do a hard credit check on me and I need to be in full time employment. Problem is I'm not and neither is his dad (full time carers). Grandparents are all retired. He has one uncle who fits the criteria but I'm 99% sure he will say no.

Are there any different halls? My dd took out guarantors insurance in her second year as she insisted on taking a flat where the landlord wanted every student’s guarantor to be liable for every students rent.

Another option might be to pay for the whole year upfront.

I'm not sure, I'll look into it. This is our first experience of university since we went 24 years ago and a lot has changed. I thought all the halls were owned by the same people but maybe not. He is going to Liverpool if that helps and we were recommended to go with the cathedral halls because it is nearest to where he will be studying and most of the students on his course will be living there.

That seems unusual, are these uni owned halls or private?

I didn't think you had to do this for uni owned halls. Are they private halls?

Might be worth contacting the uni accommodation office and asking their advice, they will have come across this before.

No, they aren’t all owned by the same people. Some halls are owned by universities (and even then they may have different contracts) and some are private halls.

I just googled them, Cathedral Halls are private halls of residence owned by a company. That is different to ones owned by the university.

I don't know anything about Liverpool's university accommodation specifically. In first year for both my children they were in university owned halls of residence so no guarantor needed. Then they went into private halls where you do need a guarantor.

You need to contact the accommodation office for Liverpool to see what they suggest as even if they your child starts in university owned halls of residence the guarantor part may become an issue in second and third year so seek their advice now. You cannot be the only ones in this situation.

It’s been a while since I was at uni @elliejjtiny (2008-2012) but neither of my parents were able to be a guarantor and all my grandparents were retired. After contacting the accommodation owners they were happy to accept my retired grandad as guarantor provided that he would show proof of his income from private pensions.

It would be very unusual to need this for first year university halls - there is no need to use private halls in the first year in the vast majority of places. May be an issue for subsequent years though