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Does my guarantee carry over to a new tenancy?
Hi,
First post and I'm looking for some advice please.
I signed as a guarantor for my son for a house share for his second year at uni in February 2019. It's a private landlord through a letting agency.
I don't recall getting a copy of the tenancy agreement but I may have done. The guarantee was in the form of a letter of guarantee, not a deed. It was all done electronically and there was no witness required, nor was there an option for a witness to sign the letter.
My son has dropped out of uni after year 2 as he couldn't cope with remote working, lockdown, etc. He's been quite seriously ill since the end of October and spent around 2 months in hospital between then and now.
He's had a demand for the next 3 months of rent due on January 1st. He was in hospital when it was due and he hasn't responded to them in the few days he's been out so the agent called me to tell me. I've spoken to my son and he's got no rent money or income.
He's applied for Universal Credit today and I've informed the agent. They have demanded I pay the rent in the next 24 hours for him. I don't have that sort of money and he needs time to sort out his benefits. At the moment I think he's to ill to work.
I asked the agent for a copy of the tenancy agreement, guarantee and details of termination clauses. They've provided me with a tenancy agreement signed in 2020, not the one that I signed up to guarantee. The letter of guarantee is a one pager that says I'll pay up if he doesn't. It has no dates of the tenancy on it, no details of when the guarantee terminates, etc. - just this one paragraph.
My first question, selfishly, is whether this letter of guarantee is valid for the tenancy agreement he signed in 2020 that I was not given a copy of or even told about? The agent have informed me that they had problems all last year getting rent payments off him which, again, they haven't told me about and had I known I wouldn't have agreed to continue as a guarantor if I'd been told about this new tenancy agreement (which I wasn't).
My second question is does anyone have any advice for what he can do to get himself out of this hole? He has buried his head in the sand and got himself into a situation he doesn't know how to get out of.
I'll just finish with a little personal information for context. This is my stepson, his mum died just over 3½ years ago at a fairly young age. I met someone new a couple of years ago and he wasn't overly impressed. Shortly after this new relationship started my daughter (his sister) was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 14. I struggled a bit mentally for obvious reasons, I couldn't maintain the relationship effectively with my two stepsons who were both living away from home with all of that going on and a manipulative grandmother causing trouble and we have a strained relationship as a result. I think this is why he's been less inclined to ask for help than usual. But I'm still his dad, he wants me to help him and I want to help him all I can but I don't have the money to bail him out.
First post and I'm looking for some advice please.
I signed as a guarantor for my son for a house share for his second year at uni in February 2019. It's a private landlord through a letting agency.
I don't recall getting a copy of the tenancy agreement but I may have done. The guarantee was in the form of a letter of guarantee, not a deed. It was all done electronically and there was no witness required, nor was there an option for a witness to sign the letter.
My son has dropped out of uni after year 2 as he couldn't cope with remote working, lockdown, etc. He's been quite seriously ill since the end of October and spent around 2 months in hospital between then and now.
He's had a demand for the next 3 months of rent due on January 1st. He was in hospital when it was due and he hasn't responded to them in the few days he's been out so the agent called me to tell me. I've spoken to my son and he's got no rent money or income.
He's applied for Universal Credit today and I've informed the agent. They have demanded I pay the rent in the next 24 hours for him. I don't have that sort of money and he needs time to sort out his benefits. At the moment I think he's to ill to work.
I asked the agent for a copy of the tenancy agreement, guarantee and details of termination clauses. They've provided me with a tenancy agreement signed in 2020, not the one that I signed up to guarantee. The letter of guarantee is a one pager that says I'll pay up if he doesn't. It has no dates of the tenancy on it, no details of when the guarantee terminates, etc. - just this one paragraph.
My first question, selfishly, is whether this letter of guarantee is valid for the tenancy agreement he signed in 2020 that I was not given a copy of or even told about? The agent have informed me that they had problems all last year getting rent payments off him which, again, they haven't told me about and had I known I wouldn't have agreed to continue as a guarantor if I'd been told about this new tenancy agreement (which I wasn't).
My second question is does anyone have any advice for what he can do to get himself out of this hole? He has buried his head in the sand and got himself into a situation he doesn't know how to get out of.
I'll just finish with a little personal information for context. This is my stepson, his mum died just over 3½ years ago at a fairly young age. I met someone new a couple of years ago and he wasn't overly impressed. Shortly after this new relationship started my daughter (his sister) was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 14. I struggled a bit mentally for obvious reasons, I couldn't maintain the relationship effectively with my two stepsons who were both living away from home with all of that going on and a manipulative grandmother causing trouble and we have a strained relationship as a result. I think this is why he's been less inclined to ask for help than usual. But I'm still his dad, he wants me to help him and I want to help him all I can but I don't have the money to bail him out.
