We are really pleased you have made a decision to support the application and tenancy for someone close to you. As part of our commitment to you, it is important to us that you are aware of what you can expect from the process and your contractual obligations.
Legal documentation
The tenants will be sent our Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) Agreement to read and sign electronically. As this is the contract you are in effect guaranteeing, please click here for a sample copy of that agreement.
A draft copy of the guarantee agreement you will be sent to sign can be found here.
Joint & Several tenancies
We are often asked why the names of all the tenants are included on the contractual guarantee. We appreciate that it may appear you are effectively guaranteeing the whole rent rather than a portion of it. The reasons that we do this is that the group who are taking the property will be signing a single tenancy agreement and so will form a single legal entity. This property is only available to be let to a single household and we cannot do anything that potentially undermines the principle of the group forming a single legal entity. If we start splitting the rent into percentages of the total rent we are doing just that and this has all sort of adverse implications including potentially invalidating the buildings insurance just to name one.
What we can assure you is that we will not accept any tenant into this household without the same guarantee that you are signing. So every guarantor who is associated with the tenancy will be signing a deed guaranteeing the whole rent and, therefore, will be in the same position as you. If one of the guarantors is not prepared the sign then unfortunately the tenancy may not go ahead and we would have to remarket the property.
Options to reduce your risk and liability
We understand this may seem daunting so it is worth noting that we are happy to accept Housing Hand, who provide a Guarantor service as an alternative for anyone unable to find someone to support their tenancy. They as a company would in effect stand as guarantor instead of you for a one off fee which is partly refundable at the end of the tenancy if no claims need to be made against it during the tenancy.
The other option we highly recommend is the Only Your Share service whereby for a one of fee of just £99 per year you can limit your own liability to only the tenant to are guarateeing's share of the rent in the contract. Therefore, if the other tenants fail to pay their rent and you have paid your share, your cover through Only My Share will ensure the arrears are settled to protect your tenant who has paid and only the remainder will be pursued for reimbursement. Please click here to apply- there is no minimum criteria and the certificate as proof of cover is issued immediately.
Electronic execution of the Contractual Guarantee
We use Docusign, an electronic signing facility for ease and convenience when signing your contractual guarantee. Please see below a tutorial on how to complete your documentation with Docusign:
We do understand your concerns and hope that this has gone some way to alleviate these. Further, you have our absolute assurance that, as a guarantor, you will be advised of any arrears as they accrue. As we have said, it is extremely unusual for any of our students to have arrears at the end of their tenancies.
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