Finance

[Tiger-ali0]

Does a Guarantor need to be employed?
My mum signed an agreement to be a guarantor when at the time she was unemployed. She is being taken to court for recovery of a rent debt. I looked on the letting agency website and it states a guarantor needs to be a homeowner which she is not, her husband has the only income. Anybody know whether we can fight this case on the grounds she was unemployed and not a home owner. Aswell as being depressed at the time due to her father's death

[Ethel]

What did she sign? Did she tick any boxes to say she was either employed and / or a homeowner?

If so, she may be guilty of deception. Who owes the rent? Surely that person should be helping your mother, not letting her go this stress.

The money is owed, and it should be paid. Why should other people bear the cost of this?

[bednobs]

unless she was coerced or not mentally capable of understanding the contract she was entering into, why should she be let off?

[bednobs]

its a pain for her, but that is life! Hopefully she has learned a valuable lesson of not trusting other people. Imagine if it were the other way round, and your mum relied on money from a rental property to be able to afford her own place or the rent on her place. I think you will find she would also track down the guarantors to recover her money if it was defaulted

[bednobs]

sorry to post 3 times but i just thought of something else. if the agency states the requirements for a guaruntor you are probably in a worse position, because presumably they could say that you should have know as they had published these rules, and that by signing, you accepted their terms and condidtions (ie that you had to be a home owner/employed)

[Tiger-ali0]

I'm not sure what she has signed will be asking for a copy though . her friend was renting accomodation as has left the property we can't trace her she wont answer our calls and her work say she's off sick. my mum has been left to pick up the bill. but like i said she had no job at the time of signing the agreement do you know whether a guarantor should be employed or have some collactoral like being a homeowner?

[themas]

The requirement for a guarantor to be employed &/or own property is not a legal one. It may be imposed by the landlord or agent as a means of trying to ensure that the guarantor has resources to pay up if necessary.

It seems that in this case either your mother gave incorrect information or the agent did not enforce the requirement. Whichever it is, I doubt whether she can avoid the responsibility of paying. If she is being taken to Court then she will have to pay the Court costs as well as the rent debt. She needs to make sure she puts in to the Court an Income & Expenditure statement (on the Court form she should have received with the claim), and an offer of payment by instalments (unless she intends to dispute liability entirely).

[oldhenry]

The person requiring the guarantee was a bit silly not to ascertain that the guarantor could pay , if necessary, but this is a classic case of never trust anyone, or sign anything that will come back to bite you.
Her best bet is to get the court to set a very low repayment of the debt , say �1 a week, with no interest. Sometimes courst are 'soft' in this way.
But how much is the debt?

[Tiger-ali0]

thank you themas very much you have been very helpful. the debt is around �2,000, oldhenry.