Landlord asking for our bank statements as guarantor for uni house share

[Rattytouille]

My DH has agreed to be guarantor for my DS’s house share of 4 for year 2 at a London uni.

DH has a very well paid job, and has provided letters from work and evidence of his salary and paid my DS’s deposit for his share of the house.

Now the LL/ estate agent is saying they want to see my DH’s (our) bank statements. DH isn’t happy and says it’s an intrusion of his privacy.

Is it normal to ask to see guarantors bank statements?

Sadly - yes it’s normal. They will ask for 3-6 months bank statements to check if you can afford the rental payments should you need to step in.

Who is actually saying that?

the EA because they are processing the rental
or
direct from the LL?

Either way…. Completely normal

and makes total sense

Why sadly?

Just protecting a very sizeable asset

I’ve been guarantor twice (3 landlords, 2 cities) and haven’t ever been asked for bank statements, which I agree is intrusive. Do you own your own house? Aside from being able to check this (?) I’m not actually sure how the LLs would have known we were good for it.

Edited to add - we’re also retired so didn’t show current salary or anything either.

Can you be the guarantor?
or do you also think an intrusion and won’t provide?

Yes.

3 months bank statements. Credit check. Pay slips (or evidence of salary going into bank).

How long ago?

Just be aware you are on the hook for everybodies rent and damage liability, not just your DC's share

Yes, normal. I had to send PDFs of all my savings accounts.

But… I was only guarantor for D.C., not the others in the flat.

But your DH is not wrong, it’s a massive intrusion of privacy. But no way round it unfortunately.

Absolutely normal. They need to do proof of funds now for AML.

No it's not normal I don't think. We've been guarantors for 3 different uni houses and we're never asked for anything like this

We have been a guarantor and agreed to payslips as thats shows we can afford it.
The only reason to see bank statements is to check what you spend your money on. And determine if its things or amounts they approve of.
If you do give them then just black out everything apart from the wages being paid in .
Its a huge invasion of privacy.

It’s not. It’s AML.

The regulations have tightened massively in the last 12 months or so. You now need to do AML and all sorts of checks on pretty much anyone you engage as a client, even if it’s as a guarantor. They need to be sure they’re not putting themselves in the position of accepting laundered money.

We only needed to provide name and address for DD's Exeter flat.

We also guaranteed older DD's London flat when she first started work. Again only name and address.

We didn't have to provide bank statements or proof of anything.

Just name and address.

What is A M L

No. We were asked for this and told them to piss off and miraculously they accepted DS as a tenant anyway. It’s outrageous.

Nonsense.

Anti Money Laundering

AML = Anti Money Laundering.

DH didn't have to give bank statements to be DD's guarantor but even worse, he had to give access to view our bank account through a portal thing, it really felt very invasive.

I wasn’t asked for this for DS’s Exeter house last year. Just name and address.

I was guarantor for my niece in Briton, didn’t have to show any bank statements. Huge invasion of privacy in my opinion. If it’s not a legal requiythen they shouldn’t be allowed surely! They can just do a credit check like any other business!

I have been a guarantor twice ( this year ) and have not shown bank statements. The accommodation was a Studio Flat Company rather than a private individuals house.

We had to do as a previous poster and give access to our bank accounts via a portal! This was just earlier this month.