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Original poster

Being a Guarantor for adult children

72 replies

Rimower · 25/04/2022 11:18

Hi,

My ds and his gf are moving in together. DS is going to be doing a masters, and his gf has a job which pays about £34k a year. The gf's parent's are retired, so can't really be a guarantor.

They are looking at flats for around £1,800 a month. They could offer 6 months up front. The problem is, the gf's job contract is a 12 month one, and she will only have 10 months of it left at the time they are looking to rent. After this, she will get another job (she is very sought after).

My question is. Can we be guarantors for their flat? Neither Dh nor I earn massive amounts (about 50k each). Last year, we had trouble with a snotty estate agent requiring guarantors to be from one income alone.

OP posts:
ChittyChittyBoomBoom · 25/04/2022 11:20

Can they really afford a rent of £1800? Your ds will be student and his gf has a temp contract? I’d be very wary of offering 😬.

ancientgran · 25/04/2022 11:25

I've done it for mine when they were students and in one case it was also for someone else in a flat share. I did it on the basis I could afford it if something went wrong, I'd be wary of doing it if you couldn't pay the rent if something went wrong.

ImAvingOops · 25/04/2022 11:34

I'd also advise caution. Your son's gf doesn't have job security and when you are a guarantor, you cannot put a limit on how long you'll cover the rent for - if they default for any reason then you are stuck with the rent until they move out.
£1800 pcm seems like a high rent to be for a couple with their income. If you are happy to risk it, I'd suggest they start looking at cheaper places to mitigate your risk.

Scooby5kids · 25/04/2022 11:36

Is there not anywhere more affordable or is this all that is available in the area? It just seems like a lot of rent for 2 young people. Could they not look at somewhere a bit smaller 🙈

MartinMartinMarti · 25/04/2022 11:44

I wouldn’t do this. It an u likely (hopefully) but plausible scenario that the relationship breaks down, the GF kicks out your son, then stops paying the rent. Could you/ would you want to pay in that scenario?

I agree their rent sounds high in their incomes. I don’t know where they are, but I’ve been looking recently at flats for a couple to commute into central London, and there are nice ones for far less.

Topseyt123 · 25/04/2022 11:51

Caution here too. You can be guarantors, but of course will absolutely be liable if they become unable to pay the rent, and there is no legal or financial advantage to you at all for it. Only liability.

I'm not saying that your DS and his girlfriend will default or end up unable to pay, but in their present circumstances neither yet has job security and £1,800.00 per month is a lot of money.

We had to be guarantors for our DD1 some years ago when she was a final year student at Warwick University otherwise she would have had nowhere to live. We specified though that it would only be for her portion of the rent. Other students in the house had to approach their own parents for this. There was also an end date on it because they were all leaving at the end of the academic year.

Topseyt123 · 25/04/2022 11:53

Also, as guarantors you are likely to be credit checked.

ImAvingOops · 25/04/2022 12:02

For anyone out there signing for student children in a house share, if their contract says 'joint and severally liable' this means that any parent guarantor can be presumed for any other student's portion of the rent, even where your own child is paying because the students are responsible for the rent as a whole and not as individual tenants. So go through their contracts with a fine toothed comb and be sure of what you are legally liable for, since the landlord will go after whichever guarantor they think will be easiest to get the money out of.
My DS shared a house with total strangers and done of their parents were based abroad and do even though they signed up as guarantors there's no way the landlord could have easily recovered that money from them had any stopped paying. We were lucky but it's a big thing to have your finances rest on the behaviour of kids you don't even know.

ImAvingOops · 25/04/2022 12:03

loads of typos there, but hopefully readable

Discovereads · 25/04/2022 12:03

You can be a guarantor when retired. You just need the income to meet affordability requirements. The income doesn’t have to be from employment, it can be from pensions or savings/investments.

I agree rent of £1800/mo sounds unaffordably high for income of £34k/yr.

Id encourage them to look at cheaper flats. They probably only need a guarantor because they’re trying to live beyond their means and have failed the affordability check themselves.

tomatoandherbs · 25/04/2022 12:03

It used to be fairly common place

now very very very rare. If at all

Duracellbunnywannabe · 25/04/2022 12:04

That’s a huge rent for a single income of 34k.

Could you afford to pay their rent if they default?

Cheesewiz · 25/04/2022 12:09

£1800! They are a couple without children? Why cant they look at 1 bed flats? No way, maybe if the rent was more like £800 a month I might consider

AxolotlEars · 25/04/2022 12:18

I would only do it if I could afford to pay if they were to default on their payments. If you are going to sign then I feel you have every right to ask to look at their financial plan for the duration of the agreement. Do not be fobbed off about this as you are signing a legal document.

we signed as guarantor for our kids for uni but did a lot of haggling with the estate agent about only being the guarantor for one room, which they finally accepted

CareBearsCare · 25/04/2022 12:22

My ds (32k) and his gf (24k) rent a flat for £900 a month. There's no kids. Are you sure that they are going for £1800 pm? That's a big percentage of your ds wage

blobby10 · 25/04/2022 13:04

@ImAvingOops I had that with my son - one of his housemates didn't pay rent for four months so the agents rang each of the parental guarantors with the warning that we were all liable. My panicked phone call to my son wasn't the only one so they literally sat next to the defaulting housemate while he made the payments!!! And did the same each month for the remaining 6 months of the tenancy 😀

ImAvingOops · 25/04/2022 13:10

I think few parents are aware of this and most think they are signing for their child only. And letting agents will deliberately let you believe that. But when it comes down to it, they will legally go after anyone they think they can get the money from

Haus1234 · 25/04/2022 13:15

There’s no way they need to spend that amount (I have lived and rented in London for nearly a decade).

Delia65 · 25/04/2022 13:19

How much is your DS able to contribute to the monthly rent? If his GF is on 34K I would guess her monthly take home pay to be around £2000 or so. So if it's based on her income alone I would say there's no way they could afford this much rent

Nopetryagain · 25/04/2022 13:19

Her approx take home net net wage is £26.5 k a year and the rent is £21.6 per year. Over 80% of their net income would be rent… that is unrealistic.

it sounds like they must be proposing to rent at least a 2 bed property at that rate, I would suggest they go for a cheaper 1 bed property to even consider acting as a guarantor.

Original poster
Rimower · 27/04/2022 05:47

I spoke to ds about it, and they've already realised that 1800 is way too much. They are now looking at around 1400. Which seems to be about the cost of a 1 bed flat (London).

I think I will only agree to be guarantor if his gf can stump up the rent upfront.

OP posts:
Testingprof · 27/04/2022 05:59

Rimower · 27/04/2022 05:47

I spoke to ds about it, and they've already realised that 1800 is way too much. They are now looking at around 1400. Which seems to be about the cost of a 1 bed flat (London).

I think I will only agree to be guarantor if his gf can stump up the rent upfront.

Depends on the area in London.

To be a guarantor, from memory, you need to earn three times the yearly rent.

SuperJune · 27/04/2022 06:19

Gosh OP, my partner and I rent a 1 bed in London 1600 pcm and have a combined income over 100k (not to brag at all, just to give an idea of pricing). Before that stage we've both house shared individually so we could get savings together for ourselves. I'm not sure what your DS and gf could get to allow DS gf to save for herself too and give them a quality of life. Though that's aside from your question!

I do have friends (a couple) who instead of house sharing lived in a studio flat for years - one working one studying, who then worked too and they could get a 1 bed. So perhaps a well kept studio could be a good budget and a solution for them? And, if you are the guarantor, be less rent that you would be liable for?

Also FWIW my dad refused to be guarantor for my first flat. From my perspective at the time I was a little disappointed but did understand and ultimately made it work - hopefully your DS would be the same if you came to the same conclusion.

I really hope they find somewhere they love! How exciting Smile

tomatoandherbs · 27/04/2022 06:28

Rimower · 27/04/2022 05:47

I spoke to ds about it, and they've already realised that 1800 is way too much. They are now looking at around 1400. Which seems to be about the cost of a 1 bed flat (London).

I think I will only agree to be guarantor if his gf can stump up the rent upfront.

Very very unlikely guarantors will be permitted. Not at all commonplace these days

and are you sure they’re ready? They seem rather naive

ImplementingTheDennisSystem · 27/04/2022 06:28

When I was renting, the estate agent said they multiply the monthly rent by 30 and your salary needs to be higher than the resulting figure to be deemed able to afford the rent. So its £54k in this case, which is way off what they have coming in. Cantbthey find anything cheaper?