Guarantors (Scotland)

[jim360]

Is anyone aware of a specific law or laws that sets out the rights and responsibilities of guarantors when it comes to rent for Joint tenancy? I've tried searching but can't find it myself; assuming there is such legislation then it must have been laid down many years ago and has not changed in any significant way since.

The legal guidance may need to be specific to Scotland, and in particular should be focused on a Joint and Short Assured Tenancy. I have already found advice from such websites as Shelter but I was hoping for the actual legal source, if it exists.

[Peter Pedant]

No I dont ( ha!)
but I would like to know

Joint as in the question means that the g is guarantor for all the rent no matter who it is due from.

If there is rent owing - you have lost the game and I would get the tenants out, and then sue all of them ( jointly) along with the guarantor

If you are considering doing it - think carefully.

Also you have to think about what the position is if the g wishes to stop let us say 9 months into the tenancy

and also if G guarantees a contract for Albert and Bertie and then visits and finds that it isn fact Albert and Cedric. Bertie has moved out and they are in arreeeeeeeears !

I have two guarantors for two properties and quite honestly I dont think I will be claiming off them. They are however useful for cracking the whip over sitting tenants.

My view is open ended wallet for the guarantor
so be very careful

all have been close fambly members of the tenants that I know and trust

[Peter Pedant]

.

I f you are wondering what the law is
then you preview the g having to do his stuff
and I wouldnt go near if I were you

[jim360]

To clarify, I am not the guarantor nor am I going to be one. But I live currently in a flat that's shared with three other people, one of whom needs a guarantor, and the one she picked is, currently, refusing to sign the paperwork on the grounds that they were worried they'd have to cover the whole flat. I sent a message to them to the effect that while this may be legally true it wasn't going to happen in practice. Not heard back. In the meantime I was hoping to clarify the legal side of things since the best I've found is advice from, say, the Shelter website.

That message I sent on Thursday evening. The prospective guarantor has yet to reply. They really need to soon. I'm worried that it will bounce back on my own living arrangements if it doesn't get sorted out... the lease, which has yet to be signed, "begins" on September 23rd. I don't think we can sustain living in the flat with no lease indefinitely.

[wolf63]

I don't think that any of the legal experts are Scottish so I am not sure if you are going to get much help.

Is there nobody at the uni that could help?

[jim360]

Up to a point this is just a general question since I've just been in touch with the prospective guarantor and they'll be happy to proceed now. It would be good to know for the future, perhaps. Anyway, I have hopes that it'll be sorted over this week, which is a bit later than hoped for and not brilliant timing as I have a lot on.

Not sure how much help the University could give as I'm not a student but technically staff; and more to the point, this is private accommodation rather than provided by the University. Perhaps if I needed to find somewhere new to live they'd be able to help, but if this drags on then it would be more a case of general advice than anything concrete I expect.

[Peter Pedant]

Well the law is straightforward

If she is a joint guarantor then she will be guaranteeing all the rent and not her man's bit of it.

I am not sure if you can issue a document - "you are a joint guarantor but you arent really" .... that will get up and run. Unless you guarantee it.

and yes I am not legal

I think she is right in being cicrcumspect.


IN terms of the law: being a guarantor is what it says on the tin

[jim360]

"The law is clear"... yes, but this brings me back to the original question: where is this made clear in the law?

[Peter Pedant]

try googling

definition of joint and several liability

[Peter Pedant]

and try googling guarantor

and it is as you would think it might be

[jim360]

I had, shockingly, thought to google it already. And had found, say, links on a Shelter website that spells out the guidance and the role. What I have not found is any reference to where the role and responsibilities of guarantor are enshrined in, say, legislation. Which is what the question is about. I know what a guarantor does, and does not do. I was wanting to find the origin in law.