UK Landlord Forum / Life

I am about to rent a property out and have a tenant, but would like to get a guarantor involved.  The tenant has a guarantor but I am unsure what I need to do in order to make their obligations legally binding.

Is there a recommended template I should use?
Should I be doing checks on the guarantor too, if so, what?

Thanks

Guarantors are a waste of time (other than for students) and serve only to give landlords a false sense of security.

It needs to be a deed. The guarantor needs to have seen the tenancy agreement and encouraged to take legal advice. And they need to be able to afford what they're guaranteeing.

But don't waste the effort. If the tenant needs a guarantor for you to be happy with them, don't rent to them.

Thanks for your reply.

JPKeates reply has always been my position too, but I think that with a more difficult rental climate for landlords,   more and more will seek guarantors to help offset the additional risks. This will be especially so for those housing foreign students.

Students are an exception to my rule, because they're invariably parents. Overseas students are stuffed by the RRB. Rent in advance is capped, there're no fixed terms (although that might change for student lets), the deposits are capped and the chances of recovering money from outside the UK is minimal.
The chances of an "overseas" student having someone who qualifies as a decent UK based guarantor seem remote.

Quote from: jpkeates on March 31, 2025, 04:15:25 PMStudents are an exception

I don't disagree, but there's no doubt that landlords do sometimes win court cases against guarantors and as long as they follow the correct process and use a robust agreement template, I think there's a good chance that a guarantors solicitor would advise against going to court and just settle.

I've never used them and now that I'm selling, luckily will never have to. However  whatever we think, I suspect that the use of guarantors is only going to continue to grow.

Quote from: DPT on April 03, 2025, 02:03:37 PMHowever  whatever we think, I suspect that the use of guarantors is only going to continue to grow.

Can't argue with that. I just think it's landlords kidding themselves.