Student house rent liability question

So my daughter is sorting out a house for her second year at Uni. We obviously have to guarantee the rent.

4 students including my daughter are sharing.

Reading the tenancy agreement it clearly states that all 4 guarantors are jointly responsible for the entire rent. i.e if any students drop out or stop paying the rent then the remaining guarantor’s are liable. Surely this is ridiculous – my daughter only met these people a few weeks ago!   Who on earth would sign a contract where you could be personally liable for 28k with 3 other people’s parents you have never met? I always assumed as guarantor we would be liable for our daughters share and no more.

I mean there could be a million circumstances where some other kids parents can’t pay the rent – divorce, businesses folding, redundancy, illness etc etc.

There must be many of you who have been in this situation – have I got it wrong or is this tenancy agreement unusual?

It’s pretty standard… If some of the housemates bail, never to be seen again, they can go after the remaining ones and/or their guarantors.

EDIT..although presumably all the housemates will have to have parents as guarantors, so all parents will be jointly liable in theory, so it shouldn’t make any material difference – but the reality is they will go after anyone who can pay… path of least resistance and all that…can you check the other housemates all have guarantors?

And the bailing housemates parents too don’t forget, they’ll be signing the same contract

its normal when sharing a house to be jointly liable for the rent.  If you are renting a room its not

As others said, I think it’s standard, at least in MissJ experience. I think In the real world there’s such a demand for rooms that if someone bails it’s no problem to find a replacement to pay the rent. Of course that is also strictly not allowed but it’s just a jungle.

Unfortunately it is pretty standard.

That said, I signed unfair and illegal student contracts as guarantor and saw my son sign as tenant. My reasoning was:
– the landlady didn’t stick to any part of the Repairing Standards anyway
– the Agent and Landlord was dumb enough to include contracts which had terms which were contradictory to the current law in Scotland, so should anything go wrong with the tenancy, things would be automatically found in the tenants favour in Court or First Tier Tribunal. Having attended a court and seen Tribunal documents before (As a landlord), I saw how quickly a couple of cases were dismissed when a Landlord had either included unfair terms, not stuck to their terms, or not stuck to Process or Repairing Standards…

Yes, just done the same here I think.

The wording of these agreements seems deliberately obtuse.

So my daughter is sorting out a house for her second year at Uni. We obviously have to guarantee the rent.

Actually that’s not 100% essential.  My son’s current flat I am guarantoring it but his previous one had no guarantors – the difference is this is quite a nice flat that really wasn’t being advertised to students and the previous one was not!

Reading the tenancy agreement it clearly states that all 4 guarantors are jointly responsible for the entire rent. i.e if any students drop out or stop paying the rent then the remaining guarantor’s are liable.

You are then equally as liable as the person who drops out.  Joint and Severly liable has always been the way for whole flat rentals.  The alternative would be that each room is rented under a separate contract and if someone leaves/doesn’t pay the landlord can put anyone they want in as a replacement.

Surely this is ridiculous – my daughter only met these people a few weeks ago!   Who on earth would sign a contract where you could be personally liable for 28k with 3 other people’s parents you have never met? I always assumed as guarantor we would be liable for our daughters share and no more.

My son’s one, the landlord came back and asked if I could just guarantor both of them as the other person’s parents were not in the country and so it was contractually too hard.  I agreed.  Legally that is of course stupid, but I do have the slight advantage over you that he has been sharing with this person for 2 years already so I know the rent will get paid and not trashed.  I took the view that even if there were no guarantors, if his flatmate disappeared and the rent was due it was going to fall to my son to pay and I’d end up helping him out anyway so it was not actually a huge extra risk.

It would be very bad luck for ALL of the other parties not to pay and you to end up liable for all of them!  It would be even worse luck to then not be able to recover your loss from the other parties.  Bear in mind that other parents will also be signing this to cover your child.

There must be many of you who have been in this situation – have I got it wrong or is this tenancy agreement unusual?

If it is any reassurance, I’ve never heard of a student rental where a guarantor was ever taken to court to enforce it. It probably does happen but its more likely that the grown ups with some funds are able to find an amicabe solution than a bunch of teenagers.  I think once you get your head round the fact that four people renting a flat as a group are all equally liable for each others rent – then the guarantors issue is less alarming.  My view is that landlords mostly use guarantors not so much as having someone to pursue if the rent doesn’t get paid, but as an emotional tool to make sure that the students have someone with potentially much more influence to make sure the rent does get paid.  Whilst it puts you on the hook, I suspect it also means that the other three students are likely to feel slightly more pressure to actually pay the rent as they are answerable to their parents not just a faceless landlord; ultimately your daughter would be on the hook for the theoretical 28k anyway…

This isn’t just a student issue surely – in any joint tenancy if one bails the other(s) are liable.

Standard.
Same as it was back in the 80s! Someone drops out you all cover it out of pocket or rustle up another renter.

This isn’t just a student issue surely – in any joint tenancy if one bails the other(s) are liable.

Yes but the situation of having to set up a tenancy in December for a house they are not moving into till September in the first year of uni after 1 term with them not knowing whether they will even pass the year, change institutions etc or knowing each other for more than a few weeks is very different from the typical houseshare I would have thought.

Standard.
Same as it was back in the 80s! Someone drops out you all cover it out of pocket or rustle up another renter.

Yes I’m sure it was but when I was in uni in the late 80s/ early 90s my rent was a fraction of todays costs even with inflation, living costs were cheap and there were grants not loans. Tuition fees were not paid by the student/parent The sheer amount of money involved now is off the charts so its not remotely comparable.

I guess I’m probably more worried than most parents because my daughter is autistic and has absolutely no concept of lying or that other people may have different objectives to her. This included rental agencies who she firmly believes are there to help her and as she is completely honest and trustworthy she assumes everyone is! It just makes her slightly more vulnerable than many other young people I know who are streetwise.

£28K for 4 kids for a year? **** me! That’s outrageous.  What kind of property is this?

@speeder  That would be for 11 months actually……

Its a non-descript 4 bed corner semi in a quiet residential street in Exeter. It has a small yard and a single drive. Its £2600 a month and yes its a scam – but what choice do you have as a parent????????

That’s outrageous.  What kind of property is this?

That, unfortunately, is around the going rate for student accommodation ….. and it will be typically run down for that money as well.

I’m very happy all my girls have finished uni! Last one was paying £570/month in a house for 6 – the fewer the tenants the higher the cost.

£28K for 4 kids for a year? **** me! That’s outrageous. What kind of property is this?

That is the rate for student residences, welcome to the ponzi scheme that is our Universities and the extraction of cash businesses that have been built around the ‘Going to Uni’ system….

£28K for 4 kids for a year? **** me! That’s outrageous. What kind of property is this?

Agreed, that is insanely cheap.  I’m on the hook for over fifty grand for my son’s accommodation this year. Though it is half way through so I guess my max is now only £27k

Still, it’s nice to be able to support the south of England economy…..?

Last one was paying £570/month in a house for 6

Is that inc utility bills?

Like all housing, student accommodation is extortionate.  At least with MCJnr going to Cambridge all accommodation for all three years is run by the colleges and not by dickhead private landlords, though getting repairs done could be just as tedious.

Not wanting to put any pressure on LittleMissMC who has her Cambridge online interviews starting in 15 minutes ?

Though I quite fancy the idea of Lancaster or Bath for a change.

That is the rate for student residences, welcome to the ponzi scheme that is our Universities and the extraction of cash businesses that have been built around the ‘Going to Uni’ system….

My daughter told me yesterday that from January she’ll have 4 hours a week face-to-face in uni. She worked it out at costing her £100 per hour in fees. I’m not convinced that’s the real cost but it’s not great VFM.

She left it too late to pull out of her shared house this year – she’s moving back in with us for the year – so I told her that I wouldn’t sign as guarantor if that would help her. The landlord apparently said that there’s no problem, she didn’t need a guarantor anyway!

Is that inc utility bills?

Yep…. £520 without bills.  They ran the heating and almost lived in darkness because of the fear of bills.

(Manchester. Leeds was the same money but more rats)

She left it too late to pull out of her shared house this year – she’s moving back in with us for the year – so I told her that I wouldn’t sign as guarantor if that would help her. The landlord apparently said that there’s no problem, she didn’t need a guarantor anyway!

One daughter had a bad time at uni and left mid-way through year two – thought I was going to have to stump up the balance of the rent for the year as the letting agency couldn’t GAS once they had someone on the hook, but luckily her housemates found someone to take her place.

If that hadn’t happened I was going to point out to the agents that they hadn’t got a signed Right to Rent agreement from my daughter which would have put them or the landlord in a rather sticky situation.

Yes standard practice, i always used to get home owning guarantors if tenants didn’t pass credit check.  Be aware you and others are signing to underwrite the contract duration rent plus any damages not insured, ie, through negligent behaviour.

i hear that you can get insurance as a guarantor, in case this happens. iirc its aroun £300

Thanks Alric I’ll look into that.

@poolman and are we also signing to ensure there is no negligent behaviour by the landlord or letting agent I wonder….probably not. But thanks for your input as a landlord. Personally I think private letting should be made financially unviable and the majority of rent across the whole sector apart from luxury housing controlled by housing associations as it is in the Netherlands. My wife’s brothers kids pay around a third of what we will be paying for city centre student accommodation in Utrecht and Leiden.

https://www.guarantorinsure.co.uk/ this one is about £100

Some people seem to be a bit distant from the rented sector… it’s all pretty much like that.

Best thing would be to bypass any landlords, draw a pentangle,do any requested blood sacrifice and have a one to one with the horned dude when he shows up.He will cut you a much  better deal.   😉 🙂