QUERY: Couple wanting only 1 of them on contract

Hi,

I have a couple wanting to move into my property. He would like to be the sole person on the contract and is offering me a guarantor, but he is failing the affordibility check with his salary alone. He has assured me his girlfriend is paying half the rent, but there is no security in that for me. I would like to have her on the contract as well. But he said:

“My girlfriend can only be in the country for 6 months at a time, so I don’t know if she would be approved to be on a one year lease. Which is why I am comfortable providing a guarantor.”

I don’t see why not she couldn’t be on the lease. She is Canadian and working for an HR Canadian company remotely and coming and going to London to stay with her boyfriend. My question: can she be on a 1 year tenancy contract?

What would you all do in such a case? Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,
Jacquie

Don’t take a tenant who can’t afford the contract by himself if he’s the only named person

Even if she’s on the lease for 12 months . If she’s not in the country you can’t recoup lost monies

Walk away
Their problem is not your problem

This is a very high risk situation for you

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If he wants to be the sole pwrson on the TA and cant afford it its simple dont rent to them
What uf all the travelling back and forth dosent work for her and they split what if she looses her job (that could apply if she was resident here too I suppose)
What if she was ever denied the right to enter the country?
Its really nit worth the risk there surely must be lots more people out there that fit your criteria better move on

Its unlikely that the Girlfriend has a Right to Rent, so can only be a guest. She cant contribute to the rent and if you know she is paying him to live there, you would be colluding with a breach of the Immigration Act 2016 and potentially liable to a £10,000 fine.

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This is new information to me… It’s illegal for her to give him rent money to stay for the time she is in town?

technically yes because she’s effectively paying to rent somewhere when she has no right to. In practice though, you would have no idea where his money is coming from so, for me, it’s a grey area where, unless you had explicit knowledge, i.e. they told you she was paying or you could see bank statements while they were renting, you would be innocent of what she’s doing.

Personally, I wouldn’t rent to them. Too much risk.

The reason I quoted the 2016 Act, rather than the 2014 Act, (where the Right to Rent was introduced) is that the 2016 Act made it a criminal offence to allow someone to reside if the landlord had reasonable cause to believe the person didn’t have the Right to Rent. The penalty now being a up to a £10,000 fine or 10 years imprisonment.

Absolutely right. So, irrespective of where the rent’s coming from, you couldn’t let her live in the property without her proving she had right to rent. That means she needs a share code which, along with her date of birth, you input into the gov.uk website to verify her right to rent. To be clear, that applies even if she’s not on the tenancy agreement.

Don’t rent to this guy if he cannot afford the rent. His girlfriend could ditch him next week. Far too risky even with a guarantor.

@Jacquie1 I was going to give my reasons why you should not consider these tenants but hopefully the responses so far have given you an indication that you should not be renting to these tenants

Thank you so much to you all for your help and support. I have not rented to this couple in the end. Best wishes

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