UKH

Daughter is at university and has found a house for next year with 3 mates.

Contract requests guarantor in case of her default on rent.  Fair enough.

Contract further requests each guarantor to be jointly liable for default by any other of the 4 tenants.

Is that normal?!  I'm fearful that in the (admitedly highly unlikely) event of one of the girls buggering off, then it will be easier to pursue the remaining tenants and their guarantors that try to chase down the missing one.

Is it enforceable?

In reply to Deadeye:

If you sign it then it’s enforceable.  

In reply to Deadeye: it's certainly common in that it was the case for all my student lets. Can't answer your other questions I'm afraid.

In reply to Deadeye:

Seems to be depressingly common. I signed a contract that made my housemates and I jointly liable for everybody's rent. No guarantors involved though.

I wouldn't assume that somebody moving out is all that unlikely. Fallouts happen, dropouts happen, people move in with romantic partners. In my house, the father of one of our friends died and he dropped out of uni.

I don't know whether the contract was enforceable but we didn't know enough to try to fight it. For the remainder of the year, we split the extra rent between the remaining five housemates. It wasn't unmanageable but it certainly hurt us all and we were much more careful about what contracts we signed in future.

Edit: The uni should have an office that can advise on questions like this.

In reply to marsbar:

I don't think it's as simple as that. These particular clauses may or may not be enforceable but putting something in a contract and getting somebody to sign it doesn't automatically mean you can enforce it. Unreasonable or deceptive clauses can be unenforceable and there are some rights you can't sign away.

In reply to Deadeye:

Might be worth your daughter checking with the Student Union at her university. They generally provide excellent advice and information on student rental procedures and liability.

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Good advice.  Thank you

In reply to Deadeye:

if you're jointly liable then you're liable for 1/4 of any default - so in monetary terms it's not any different to being liable for your daughter's share, but the overall risk of needing to pay out some amount is higher.

(this is just my interpretation of the clause as you've summarized it; no liability in tort, tart, or other form of pastry based fruit dish. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet and so on and so forth.)

In reply to daWalt:

This is not true. This is what 'severally liable' means. 'Jointly liable' means each debtor is liable for the whole debt, though they have rights of contribution inter se. So if the OP signs this and all the other tenants and their guarantors disappear in a puff of smoke, he will have to pay the whole rent.

As a general proposition, it's probably a good idea if unqualified people who have no idea what they are talking about do not purport to give others legal advice relating to life-changing decisions over the internet.

The clause in question will definitely be enforceable, and is normal in the sense that it is frequently demanded. Whether it will be insisted upon if resisted and whether student accommodation is available on other terms are different questions. Whoever said that the university will or should have student advisers who can answer it probably gave the best advice on this thread.

I do wonder about how students from poor backgrounds ever get university educations. How do they find accommodation in the face of this sort of demand, for instance?

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Students from poorer backgrounds often study within commuting distance of the family home, missing out on the social side of University  

In reply to Deadeye:

This was on my contract for student housing years and years ago. My dad crossed it out and wrote a letter (that's how long ago) to say he would guarantee my rent and that was it. My landlord was fine with it. Obviously yours might not be.

In reply to XXXX:

All of my student houses had one of these clauses. Now, I would probably challenge it but I knew and trusted the people I was living with not to sail off into the sunset leaving me holding the bill. Now there's youthful naivety!

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Thanks John - and welcome back? You've been missed.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Thanks  OP said "joint" not "joint and several"

Maybe you can expand on what this difference means given that you're qualified. 

Of course you're right, the liability would fall on the remaining parties if others died went bankrupt or as you say disappeared. It doesn't transfer just because the other party can't be bothered with it. 

In reply to daWalt:

Joint and several contracts for student accomodation are standard fair these days.

To the OP, I have been through this with my girls a few times over the last couple of years.

You either sign them or find something else ( and you will be lucky to be able to do that). So its standard practise.

Some tips we learnt

1. A good letting agent will do back ground checks on the guarantor. So have they asked you and the other parents for financial information etc?Has the letting agent done this and have all the other parents responded. It will give you a good guide as to whether the other parents will shoulder their responsibility if the manure hits the fan.If one of the parents back away, you know that it is not going to be good.if the letting agent has not done such checks, move onto another let and ignore it.

2. Knowing the other students. How well does your daughter know them. Does she hang round with them? Can she make a judgement on them?

3. Meeting the other parents. This can be a godsend, especially when you find out that one of the parents is a letting agent themselves ( as happened with us on one occasion).

4. Even you speaking/meeting the letting agent can be reassuring. My eldest first let agent had an appearance of being a "shark", when we met him totally different....and the best one she experienced over 3 lets in London..

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

What?!?! But this is UKC, John! What am I going to do all day if I can't endlessly blather away about something I'm not qualified to comment on??

Just kidding, John

In reply to Luke90:

Not much use in a corpse attending university. Was he writing a thesis on poor grammar in the modern age?