Why professional guarantors exist

professional guarantor

You’ve been looking around for a new home for ages. You finally find your perfect place. You tell the agent you're interested. But next they ask you for a guarantor. And you're stuck. You know you need to move fast before someone else snaps up the property. But who can be a rent guarantor?

A rent guarantor has to be someone with a good credit history or a homeowner. They have to live in the UK and be over the age of 21. So, if you’re lucky you could reach out to a parent or relative and see if they can vouch for you if you don’t make your rent. If that isn’t an option there are also professional rent guarantors out there (more on this later).

Why do people need a guarantor?

There are many reasons people need a guarantor. It ranges from working a zero-hour contract, being self-employed to being a student without any additional income.

For example, if you’re self-employed it’s pretty hard to prove you have a regular income. Perhaps you’re a journalist writing for several publications, but stories fluctuate from month to month. This would worry a landlord as they want their renter to be reliable. That’s not to say self-employed people aren't, but it’s more difficult to prove their income. As a result, the landlord tells the person or their letting agent that they require a guarantor. This means the journalist may reach out to family - or maybe even friends - to act as their ‘backup’.

Even if you’re in full-time employment a landlord can ask for a guarantor. This may be because of your salary or even just as a process they take with all of their tenants. This may seem unfair, but it shows everyone can be affected by this challenge.

Another example would be an international student looking for their next year's accommodation. After going to a load of house viewings of properties that haven’t been renovated in years if not decades, they find a new home to live with some friends from their course. Again, as the student hasn’t got a full-time job and relying on their student loan the landlord will ask for a guarantor. As the student is from abroad they can’t reach out to family as - mentioned above - a guarantor has to reside in the UK. If they can’t find one then they face paying 6 to 12 months rent upfront. This is not something many people can afford.

All the reasons above show why professional guarantors - like us - exist.

Professional guarantors are just like normal guarantors. We have your back when it comes to paying rent. This means we cover you for the length of your tenancy, and if you can’t make a rent payment we do it for you. We think it’s vital options like us are available to those that don’t have the option of a ‘person’ that can act as their guarantor. It creates financial inclusion for those that may lose properties in other circumstances.

But, how does it work?

To use guarantid as your guarantor you have to firstly fill in a short form with some key details for us to be able to give you a quote. After you’ve filled this in you will receive an email to notify you if you’ve been approved. Next, you need to pay a small fee (about 3 weeks of rent) for us to confirm to be your guarantor. This is when you need to supply a few more details. These include things like proof of identity, residential history and proof of income. Once that’s all sorted we send you a legal document for you to show to your landlord or agency to prove that we’re covering you. The process is quick and easy - ensuring you don’t miss out on the home you have set your heart on.

But, what if you can’t pay rent?

Well, we’ll be there for you.

Here’s a real example of a tenant not being able to make their rent: One of our tenants, unfortunately, lost her job during the pandemic. She had been working in hospitality and found herself without employment for the first time in her life. What’s more, she was not receiving financial support from the government at the time.

As a result, the tenant was unable to pay her rent. Thankfully, she had used us as her guarantor, and we were able to find a solution quickly.

We were initially emailed by the tenant’s rental agency, who informed us that she had defaulted on her rent. Our guarantor agreement says that a tenant’s agency can come to us any time this happens.

After confirming that the tenant had defaulted on her rent, we transferred the outstanding amount to her agency within 10 days.

The next step for us was to arrange for repayment of the funds from the tenant.

However, in this situation, we knew that the tenant would not be able to pay us back immediately. What’s more, the tenant was, understandably, experiencing significant stress from being in a difficult situation. So, to make things easier for the tenant, we agreed that she could pay us back in instalments over 10 months. This would allow the tenant, who is now receiving a small income, to repay the debt while having money left over for basic living costs.

We always take into consideration everyone's individual circumstances, that’s what makes us different. Whether you're a student looking for new digs, a professional looking for their first home on their own or a freelancer looking to prove regular income we are here for you. We have a friendly customer support team to help you every step of the way.

Well, I hope all that clears up why professional guarantors exist and why they actually are vital in making a fairer rental space.

Want to know more about how our guarantee service works? Check out our tenants page here >

It will outline the process of applying for us to be your guarantor as well as the quick form for you to get a quote in 2 minutes!

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