We don't want to be rent guarantors!

[Shootingstar2289]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right category or not. Please forgive me if it's not.

My brother (20) is a student who will be starting his third year in September. He will be sharing a house with other students.

Today, he asked us to be his rent guarantor. We are in a comfortable financial situation, but certainly not a financial situation to pay somebody else's rent.

As far as I know, my brother has always paid his rent but anyone could fall behind. I assume the other students would have their own guarantors but what if theirs weren't in a financial situation to pay.. I know little about it so bear with me.

My brother is only studying and not working at all. I assume most students work part time in the evenings for extra cash, so this worries me a little as he's not earning anything for extra money.

My OH would be the named guarantor as he is the earner here - Stay at home Mum here! My OH isn't comfortable with this. His own Mother owes thousands from when my OH's sister and her ex got into rent arrears. She wasn't in a position to pay - therefore she has thousands of debt from it.

I feel guilty for not wanting to do it but is it really my OH's responsibility? My parents aren't in a great financial situation. My grandparents have fair amount of savings but I read that over 75's cannot be guarantors.

Advice?

Any chance he could make an arrangement with your grandparents so that they pay his rent up front for the year and he pays his 'rent' back to them by dd instead of to the landlord?
Just basing the suggestion on the facts that you said your grandparents were comfortably off, your brother has no history of rent arrears and that your grandparents happily acted as guarantors for you. (although I appreciate that didn't involve actually shelling out any money).
I wouldn't act as guarantor in your position, no.

Its worth finding out if it has to be a joint tenancy ( where the landlord could take yiubto court for the rent arrears of the other tenants), or if it is a separate tenancy agreement for each of them, where you'd only be liable for your brothers share (plus any damage he might cause, if it cost more than his deposit).

If its a single tenancy agreement that you sign, you could, as others have suggested, get the brother to give you the money up front, from his loan each term.
Unfortunately joint agreements are extremely common, as it gives the landlord the best chance of recovering lost rent if one tenant vanishes, or if they trash the place. As someone else said, if you don't really want to take a chance on your brother paying, why would a landlord, who doesn't know him at all.

No, I wouldn't do it. As others have said, if the contract is jointly liable you could end up paying for all of the tenants. There was a mother on one of those money shows who was guarantor for her son, he was up to date with his rent but it turned out the others weren't. A number of which were international students and another they just couldn't find so she was being taken to court to pay all of it.

When I was at uni my course for every one hour at uni you were expected to do four hours at home, this is a combination of reading, researching and essay writing.

So it may seem like uni students are super part time but it's actually full time so if he doesn't need to get a job it's not really your place to comment since your concentrating on something else then working also.

99% of private shared accommodation requires a guarantor so it's not strange that he needs one.

We said no to bill as he is terrible with money and I wouldn't risk our home. I think he ended up borrowing money off mil to put down a bigger deposit, which I don't think he paid back. Looking back (8 years) it was absolutely the right thing to do.

My dad asked me and dh to be rent guarantors for him for a £1000 a month house he was going to be sharing with his friend. We had to say no, which was a good thing because the friend pulled out and my dad couldn't have afforded it on his own.

I have done this with ds this year and the 'jointly and severally liable' clause was something I felt very uncomfortable with, as I would not have been able to afford the whole rent if things had gone pear shaped.

I was made to feel by the letting agency that I had no choice, that this was standard. In the end I agreed because the kids ds was sharing with are very responsible and all have parents with high paying, professional jobs, so I figured they were likely to pay the rent. I have been lucky - the tenancy comes to an end next month, the flat is still in good condition and they all paid their rent! Next year I am only guaranteeing ds.

There are places available where you only guarantee your own child's share of the rent, but they are far less common than the contracts where you guarantee everyone. I think they are very unfair. I see why a landlord wants the security but they are passing on all the risk to people who are not really anything to do with the tenancy, while making lots of money for often awful accommodation.

Anyway, my advice is to not do it. If your brother looks for accommodation early, he has more chance of finding a place that offers seperate contracts. Don't let the agencies bully you.
My own brother shared with friends and they caused damage to the house with parties. My brother lost his deposit. So much hinges on who they share with and that isn't your risk to take.

I would tell dbro that I would guarantee him alone (if rent was reasonable and manageable). I did this for my brother, the year after the house share, when lessons about choosing housemates had been learnt! That way, you are hrlping him but not taking on endless risk.

Being a guarantor is a huge undertaking, it seems to be requested as if it were a fairly consequential favour, like 'will you give me a job reference' 🤔

in a shared student house, being a guarantor for your brother could actually meanyou are also liable for any of his housemates rent if they default too. There was a thread on here quite recently about someone who found themselves in this position

Not a chance I'd be his guarantor if he is crap with money and won't get a job. When I was at university me and the majority of my friends had weekend or evening jobs and still managed to study.

If someone needs a guarantor that tells you they are a bad risk and you shouldn't put yourself on the line, unless you can pull a stunt like this:
I had my tenants mother as guarantor, tenant got into arrears tried to contact the mother she had emigrated so I had no comeback.

Provider, that's not entirely fair to students. They haven't really had time yet to build credit histories. It's their lack of earnings which are risky, more than the person.
I think it's okay to be a guarantor for one person, not okay to end up as guarantor for all in the flat share.

I admit, my post was harsh and glib...but I maintain that it's a very big ask which is often downplayed by the landlord and treated is if it were merely a request for a character reference

I'd go so far as to say the landlord is exploiting the situation, with other businesses you take out insurance to protect you against risk
if you drive you pay an insurance policy you don't try and extract money from the relatives of the person who drove recklessly and caused you to write your car off

We refused to be rent guarantors for our own DSs, simply because we knew that if they defaulted we couldn't afford to pay.

We had previously been guarantors for our other DS's car finance. We knew he wouldn't default but what we didn't realise at the start was that it goes on your own credit record as your own debt. So when we needed a loan for something they turned us down as they said that taking that monthly payment into account we were over-committed. I don't know whether rent works like that too.

I wouldn't be a guarantor again.

Being a guarantor is a huge risk as you are making yourself liable for the whole house's rent should they default

I think it should be illegal to have guarantors.
Letting agent fees are due to be banned and the government is cracking down generally on the exploitative activities of landlords so I think there is a good chance that the use of guarantors will be banned

If he is paying this from his student loan, is he able to pay the full year in advance? You need to prove that you're earning over a certain amount for the landlord's insurance to be valid - and if not have a guarantor. The only other way around it is for him and the other students to get part time jobs and tally everyone's incomes together as evidence of enough income to rent the place. Tricky if the parents can't do it but it's definitely not your responsibility.

My mum was my sister's guarantor and she hadn't paid any rent for about 4 months when they suddenly demanded £3000 from her!

I've had working (i.e. non student) friends pay all or some of their rent up front as an alternative to having a guarantor. I strongly suggest your Dbro looks into this.

My son is also a student in Canterbury mynamewastaken and I also guarantee his rent (on his own). He works as well as attending uni, he has to too survive.

We were stung when one of our sons flat mates didn't pay her rent and the landlord came after the rest of the parents who were guarantors with threats of county court proceedings etc. In the end we did pay, it wasn't that much but we hadn't seen it coming. There was one boy in the house who had no guarantor and he paid in advance for the term, that would probably be the other option.

I am in this position at the moment. My ds and her uni friends have a house on hold for second year, joint tenancy. My husband is the only one who could be guarantor but will not take the risk incase others default and he's chased even though they say they go that persons guarantor first. These are her best friends who she will be living with. Do you think the landlord will except 6 months rent upfront and then another 6 months to complete the rent for her therefore not requiring a guarantor?

He needs to be reminded how his CV will differ from other students' when they are all looking for jobs after their degrees. Who does he think an employer will choose?

Paperdoll Admittedly my daughter is living at home so has not needed a maintenance loan, but over a year, in her part time jobs, she will earn FAR more than any maintenance loan.