Tenancy Guarantor Liability
Can anyone advise please? I have just received a solicitor's letter asking for payment of more than £8000 - arrears. I signed as guarantor for my daughter several years ago on a tenancy agreement. The landlord seems to have now become a company. I'm absolutely sick with worry - I had no idea that she owed this amount - this has gone through court etc. and she is no longer living in the property. There were payments made direct to the landlord - rather than to the letting agent and hints of harassment. Yes, I know I was stupid but could anyone help without making me feel any worse than I do now.
gudelia Sat 26/04/08 21:31
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you need to talk to your daughter quickly and find out whether she owes this mney or not. If she can prove she paid the landlord all that she should, you will be ok. If she really does owe him 8000 then i'm afraid either you or she will have to pay it
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Question Author
Thank you. Do you know if I would I be within my rights to ask for copies of the original agreement and rent payment records?
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Can't give you any help or advice, but one thing about this strikes me as very strange, and that is the amount. How can you be in default for £8000? Tenancy agreement to me indicates it applies to the deposit and rent.
Now given that most landlords require a deposit before anything else, they already have that money. As for rent, letting it go to the tune of £8000 - come on!. I let a room out, and if I went a month without rent, that would be it - end of letting to them, let to someone else.
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Have a look at this thread
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Business-and-Fi nance/Personal-Finance/Question556346.html
If you signed several years ago it is likely that the tenancy agreement you signed for expired (most are assured shorthold tenancies & the fixed term generally is no more than 12 months). It may then have been replaced by a new tenancy which you did not sign & therefore did not guarantee. However, this is not certain as tenancies can sometimes simply continue on (on what is called a periodic basis) - your daughter should be able to tell you what was done.
The above assumes you signed part of the tenancy agreement. If you signed a quite separate agreement you may have committed yourself to acting as guarantor for as long as your daughter was the tenant. You need to check the documents.
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Further thought. If this has gone through Court your daughter should have Court papers about it. The landlord or solicitor would have had to produce evidence to the Court (& a copy would be sent to your daughter) to satisfy the judge that she owed the money. If your daughter considered she did not owe it, she should have defended the case. (The Court papers would be sent to her last known address, so if she moved & the landlord/agent/solicitor did not have her current address she would not have got the papers. If that is the case, ask the solicitor to provide copies of them because - if she did not owe the money & can prove it - she can ask for the judgement to be set aside.)
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My husband got caught in exactly the same way and unfortunately he signed a guarantor form on a six month tenancy agreement seven years ago and they still came to him. Apparently the original guarantor stands while the tenant occupies the house whether that is six months or twenty years!!!! The only reason we got out of it was when we discovered that a new agreement had been done by the landlord to cut costs therefore no guarantor signature was present. We felt stupid too but you were only trying to help someone out. You need to find out as much as possible about the payments that have been made and collect all the evidence yourself dont rely on the word of others.
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