What does it mean to be a guarantor?
One of the most common phone-calls our office receives from parents, guardians or family members is in relation to them being asked to be a guarantor. All our landlords ask for a UK home-owner guarantor for tenants signing occupational contracts for their properties. The reason for this is to guarantee that the rent will be paid to them for the duration of the contract. As many of our properties are let to students, we ask for this security for our landlords as credit checks and previous landlord references can be hard to obtain for this market. By signing up to be a guarantor you are agreeing to pay any rent shortfall or arrears should the contract-holder fail to pay at any point during the duration of their Occupational Agreement. A guarantor must be a UK homeowner. During the tenant application process, once the holding deposit has been paid, the guarantor will be contacted to provide proof of homeownership and to sign the guarantor paperwork. Once this completed paperwork is received from the guarantor, we will then go on to finalise the occupational contract with the tenant. Please note, if there is a hold up in receiving the paperwork back from the guarantor this could result in the potential tenant losing their holding fee and missing out on the property.
If there are multiple tenants within one property, they will each need a guarantor to cover their portion of the rent or the same guarantor can be used, but they will be expected to cover the entire rental arrears for the whole property. In addition to paying any rent arrears, the guarantor is also agreeing to pay for any damages or repair costs the Landlord may incur at the end of the tenancy caused by the contract-holders if they are unable to cover these additional costs. This would only happen whereby the damage is above and beyond that of the expected “fair wear and tear” and the repairs cost more than the deposit.
We understand that being asked to be a guarantor can seem daunting, so our Lettings Team are more than happy to answer any of your questions just give them a call!
