Online Guarantor

[Marisa1]

Hi,
Has anyone had experience of dealing with an online guarantor company? A prospective tenant (young, straight from uni) said her former student union advised they could go down this route if struggling to find somewhere and needed a guarantor. It costs the tenant a couple of hundred pounds upfront but then the company act as a guarantor for them for the first 12 months. I’ve looked online & there appear to be a couple of companies doing this - rent guarantor & housing hand.

Landlords

Sounds like a sort of insurance that the tenant can provide - the online blurb says the company will step in & pay the rent if the tenant falls into arrears and will also start eviction proceedings if required… I prefer the idea of this rather than a private individual guarantor but wondered if anyone has experience of dealing with them & would recommend or not?
Thanks
Marisa

[Mark10]

Rentguarantor.com reply to a previous email:

“Thanks for your email. All of our contracts are for 12 month durations therefore if the AST is for 6 months and the Landlord chooses to extend this by a further 6 months our guarantor will cover this period. Any extension beyond the initial 12 months will require the tenant to sign and pay for a new contract with ourselves when the time comes.”

Bear in mind that a real guarantors responsibility doesn’t end when initial term of the AST ends.

I suppose it does put cost onto the tenant whereas rent insurance it’s with landlord.

[EmanNeercs]

Check their accounts. Net assets of £0.5mn and losses of £1.5mn. They offer consumer credit.

Ironically they are the ones that need a guarantor.