When looking for a new prospective tenant, is it pretty much a good idea to have them provide a guarantor? I’ve read it can be difficult to enforce and chase a guarantor to cover arrears, a combination with Rent Guarantee Insurance would probably make it more worth doing.
The Landlord Blog pretty much says any sensible landlord would insist on one, but do you on the most part just rely on a stable income, reference passing and gut instinct after meeting?
Any words of advice/wisdom would be much appreciated.
I agree with Collin
Gut instinct
If you are a newbie get a guarantor or you will kick yourself
Students and UC get a guarantor. That is a must.
Internationals take rent for AST upfront as they are unlikely to get a UK based guarantor.
The rest is a gut feeling.
Apart from one professional , All my others are without guarantors but their references were sterling and I did my due diligence. Look at their social media, bank statements and even visit their current abode etc etc. Listen to their story carefully. Everything they say should be backed up with paperwork. Any whiff of a lie or failure to provide evidence to support their story walk away.
The one group without a guarantor that were physically violent were put in by the estate agent. If they had looked at their facebook page they would have not been suitable candidates. That was when I discovered openrent and did it myself.
Is it the case that a proper guarantor is quite difficult to find? Especially to qualify for Rent Guarantee Insurance, the companies all seem to require a salary of around 3 times the annual rent. My property’s in London and rent is about £20k annually, I know there are a lot of high flyers in London, but with the average salary around £35-£40k, finding a willing guarantor earning at least £60k is not as easy as it seems for me… Is that why you guys consider it less than mandatory?
London has a higher rate of fraud in the rental sector
Fraud is circa 1 in 20 vs 1 in 50 in the rest of the country
In that case I would advise you to take a guarantor
The reason I have done without is our rental demographic for the population in our city
If I was in London I would not dare put a tenant without a guarantor
My property is also in London and rents for about the same amount. I’ve had a guarantor involved a couple of times but try and avoid that route if possible and will only accept one if they are full time resident in the UK and have substantial assets here. You typically have no relationship with a guarantor but they are where the financial buck stops.
Remember that a guarantor has to be able to cover their own outgoings as well as the rent on your let property. Provable income of 3 times rent is sufficient for a tenant for wholly inadequate for a guarantor. I would not accept less than 5 times rent. You should reference the guarantor thoroughly.