Hi,
the guarantor to my tenants isn’t comfortable signing up to an account with open rent and signing the contract electronically. Don’t ask why, they work in Cyber security for the Government and possibly being a bit overly-precautious (they refused to do the open banking reference checks too, but are happy to send through evidence of savings outside of open banking).
Is a written agreement from them to be guarantor via email acceptable in lieu of digital signature via the website?
Hi @Ian63,
We offer some guidance on digital signatures here.
These have been deemed legally valid by the Law Commission.
The contract is downloadable, so if you prefer to complete a contract offline, you are more than welcome to organise this directly with the tenants - we will still require all parties to login and sign online to make the tenancy agreement valid.
Guarantor agreements should be signed as a deed with a witness.
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I guess my question is, can I print off a physical copy of the agreement containing the digital signatures of the landlord and tenants, and have the guarantor add his wet signature on top?
I am happy to have the tenants sign online, but the guarantor may only want to add his signature physically to a hard copy
As digital signatures are legally valid and OpenRent is an online platform, we would expect all parties to sign online. I’m afraid we cannot accept a wet signature.
In this instance we’d advise the guarantor sign online and also sign a hard copy with yourself if they are concerned about the legality of signing online-only.
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The advantage of signing documents as deeds , rather than digitally, you have 12 years rather than six to collect arrears etc
I did not know that .That seems strange .
I found it on line the other day
I was googling but not find that. Tho for documents like a will ,a wet signature is required
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If you google guarantor deeds 12 years debt it comes up under AI overview
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To have certainty, guarantor agreement are best executed as a deed, which means everyone signs at the same time, including the witness. The guarantor could attempt to challenge a deed that has not been properly executed but the outcome would be up to the judge.
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Do you mean guarantor and witness or guarantor and landlord and witness
Pragmatically it can be difficult to get landlord and guarantor at the same time
Often the guarantor is at another end of the country
It would be the landlord, (or their representstive) and the guarantor and the wording should say "signed in the presence of … (witness). If the witness is not able to attest under oath that these are the signatures of the named people, the guarantee may be found invalid, (although clearly witnessing the guarantors signature is the most important). Guarantor agreements often fail in court for one reason or another, such as the guarantor not being given a copy of the tenancy agreement in advance or not being advised to seek legal advice before signing. In my view theyre not the ideal solution to risky tenants that many landlords imagine.
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As david 122 says the guarantor should be executed as a deed. The best way and only way in my opinion is that the guarantor has to visit a notary or solicitor to do this. This is then irrefutable and cannot be challenged, its what I do. Any resistance to this shows that they intend to wriggle should anything go wrong. I have had resistance and said go away then, in this day and age its worth waiting for the right tenant, do not waver or it ill cost you.
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Tenants that refuse simple instructions will be bad tenants get someone new. Awkward now, when they are in it will be worse. Just get rid
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