What Is a Rental Guarantor and When Do You Need One?
A rental guarantor is a third party who signs a legally binding promise to pay the rent and meet the tenant’s other obligations if the tenant does not. You need one when a tenant cannot clear referencing alone, which since May 2026 is the only workaround left after rent in advance was banned.
Most guarantors are a parent, a sibling or an employer, and a growing minority are commercial guarantor firms that charge the tenant a fee. Whoever signs, the promise sits alongside your landlord insurance rather than replacing it.
The wording and the execution matter more than the person. A guarantee that was never signed as a deed is worth nothing on the day you call on it.
A guarantor signs a legally binding promise to pay the rent and meet the tenant’s other obligations if the tenant does not, which is the main way to make a marginal application work now that rent in advance is banned. Have the guarantee signed as a deed, reference the guarantor as carefully as you reference the tenant, and be explicit in a shared house about whether the promise covers one room or the whole rent. A guarantee is only worth what the person behind it can pay, so weigh it against rent guarantee insurance rather than treating the two as interchangeable.
Compare rent guarantee insurance quotes if a guarantor alone is not enough.
- What does a rental guarantee cover and for how long?
- Why is a guarantee usually signed as a deed?
- How does a guarantee work in a shared house?
- What checks should you run on a guarantor?
- What did the renters' rights act change for guarantors?
- How does a guarantee fit a tenancy with no end date?
- Guarantor or rent guarantee insurance: which protects you better?
- How do you enforce against a guarantor?
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What does a rental guarantee cover and for how long?
A guarantee covers whatever the deed says it covers, which is usually rent, and often damage, unpaid council tax and the cost of recovering the debt. Anything not named in the document cannot be claimed from the guarantor later.
Rent is the floor, not the ceiling
A rent-only guarantee does exactly that and no more. Widen the wording and the guarantor also picks up dilapidations beyond fair wear and tear, which is where a guarantee starts to overlap with accidental damage cover.
Council tax arrears are the item landlords forget to name. Since 1 May 2026 the tenant stays liable for council tax to the end of the tenancy rather than the end of a fixed term, so a broad guarantee reaches further than it used to.
How long the liability runs
The guarantee lasts as long as the tenancy it names, and every tenancy is now a periodic assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 as amended. There is no fixed end date left to fall back on.
A deed covering “the term and any extension or continuation of it” has no natural stopping point. That is the line every guarantor should read twice.
Why is a guarantee usually signed as a deed?
Because a deed binds without consideration and stays enforceable for twelve years instead of six. A guarantee signed after the tenancy has already started often fails as an ordinary contract, which is precisely when landlords discover the problem.
Writing, signature and the consideration trap
Section 4 of the Statute of Frauds 1677 requires a guarantee to be in writing and signed by the guarantor. A verbal promise to cover a friend’s rent is unenforceable however clearly it was given.
Consideration is the second hurdle. If the tenancy agreement is already signed, you have given nothing new in return for the promise, so the guarantee can be attacked on that ground alone.
A deed removes the argument, because the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 lets a deed bind without consideration. It must say on its face that it is a deed, be signed in front of a witness who also signs, and be delivered.
Six years or twelve, and why the gap matters
Under the Limitation Act 1980 a claim on an ordinary contract must be issued within six years. A claim founded on a deed has twelve.
Arrears often surface only when a long tenancy ends, by which point the earliest missed payments can be six years old. Those extra six years are the difference between a recoverable debt and a write-off.
Terms a court will strike out
The CMA guidance on unfair contract terms applies to a guarantee signed by a private individual. A term making the guarantor liable for anything the landlord chooses to claim, with no cap and no notice, is the kind that gets struck out.
Send the guarantor the tenancy agreement before they sign, and state the monthly rent inside the deed. Both cost nothing and make the guarantee harder to challenge.
How does a guarantee work in a shared house?
On a single joint tenancy the guarantor is jointly and severally liable for the whole rent, not one share of it. A parent guaranteeing one room in a five-bed student house is guaranteeing the other four rooms as well.
Joint and several liability in practice
One agreement signed by all the sharers creates one debt. If the property is an HMO let on a single agreement, every guarantor stands behind the full monthly rent.
You can pursue whichever guarantor is easiest to reach and most likely to pay. Recovering a fair share from the others is then that person’s problem, not yours.
| Shared house | Rent per room | Total monthly rent | Uncapped exposure over 12 months | Capped to one room over 12 months |
| 3-bed flat share | £550 | £1,650 | £19,800 | £6,600 |
| 4-bed professional share | £600 | £2,400 | £28,800 | £7,200 |
| 5-bed student house | £520 | £2,600 | £31,200 | £6,240 |
| 6-bed licensed HMO | £575 | £3,450 | £41,400 | £6,900 |
How to cap the exposure to one room
Separate agreements per room give each guarantor a single share to stand behind. That is normal in a licensed HMO and still unusual in a student let.
Keep one joint agreement and you can write a cap into each deed instead. Landlords who refuse any cap lose the strongest guarantors and accept weaker tenants.
What checks should you run on a guarantor?
Run the same referencing you run on the tenant, then test the income against the whole rent rather than the tenant’s share. A guarantor who cannot fund the rent on top of their own housing costs is decoration, not security.
The income multiple landlords use
Most referencing providers want a guarantor earning around 36 times the monthly rent a year, which is three times the annual rent. The tenant is assessed at the lower figure of 30 times the monthly rent.
The higher multiple exists because the guarantor already pays for somewhere to live. On a £1,200 a month tenancy that means guarantor income of roughly £43,200.
What you can ask for, and what you cannot charge
Photo identity, proof of address, payslips or two years of accounts, and consent to a credit search are all fair to ask for. What you cannot do is charge for any of it, because the Tenant Fees Act 2019 treats a guarantor as a relevant person.
Charging a guarantor a referencing fee risks a penalty of up to £5,000 for a first breach and up to £30,000 for a repeat. The ban catches payments routed to a third party on your behalf as well.
Do not use a guarantor as a screening shortcut
Asking only benefit claimants or only families with children for a guarantor is a practice that makes a tenancy less likely for them, which the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 treats as discrimination. Letting to tenants on housing benefit is now a question about affordability, not about benefits status.
A council can impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000 for a breach. Write one guarantor policy based on income and referencing outcome, then record why each applicant met or missed it.
What did the renters’ rights act change for guarantors?
Two changes landed and one did not. Guarantor liability now stops when the tenant dies, rent in advance is banned outright, and the proposed ban on requiring a guarantor from a tenant who had already passed referencing was dropped before Royal Assent.
Guarantor liability ends at the tenant’s death
Section 19 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 inserts sections 16N and 16P into the Housing Act 1988. Where a sole tenant dies, the guarantee stops covering rent for any period after the death.
Rent that fell due before the death stays recoverable in full. The rent period containing the death is split by days, so the guarantor covers only the part of that month before the tenant died.
In a joint tenancy the guarantee falls away when the family member the guarantor is connected to dies. The Act defines family member widely, from spouses and cohabitees down to nieces, nephews and cousins.
The rent in advance route is closed
Six months upfront used to be the standard workaround for a tenant with no guarantor. Sections 8 and 9 ended it, and the government guide to the Renters’ Rights Act confirms that only the first rent period, or a period ending within the first 28 days, can be taken before the tenancy starts.
Asking for more is a prohibited payment and is enforced through the Tenant Fees Act regime. That is why guarantor demand has risen rather than fallen since May 2026.
What the act did not do
A Lords amendment would have stopped landlords requiring a guarantor from any tenant who had already passed an affordability check. It was removed during ping-pong and never became law.
Section 41 expressly preserves the right to take a person’s income into account, and bodies including the NRLA expect the point to return in a later bill. Until it does, asking for a guarantor is lawful provided you apply the policy consistently.
How does a guarantee fit a tenancy with no end date?
It runs until the tenancy ends or the deed says it stops, and no tenancy has a fixed end date any more. A guarantee written for the term and any continuation of it is now an open-ended commitment.
Why open-ended guarantees are harder to get signed
Under the old assured shorthold a guarantor could see a twelve-month horizon and price the risk. A periodic assured tenancy can run for a decade.
Guarantors are refusing more often as a result, particularly parents close to retirement. Landlords with a buy-to-let mortgage to service feel that refusal first.
How to word it so people will sign
Give the guarantee a review date of twelve or twenty-four months, with an option to request a fresh deed. Cap the total liability at a stated figure such as twelve months of rent.
Both changes make the deed acceptable to a cautious parent without leaving you unprotected. An undated, uncapped guarantee that nobody signs protects nothing.
When a guarantor can walk away
A guarantor cannot revoke the promise unilaterally unless the deed allows it. Release normally needs your written agreement, and portfolio landlords usually give it only once a replacement guarantor or an insurance policy is in place.
A tenant serving valid notice to quit ends the tenancy, and with it the guarantee. Arrears built up before that date remain the guarantor’s liability.
Guarantor or rent guarantee insurance: which protects you better?
A guarantor gives you unlimited recovery against one person’s assets but no money until you chase it. Rent guarantee insurance gives you a capped monthly payment that arrives on schedule without a court case.
Where the two products differ
Rent guarantee insurance pays your rent while arrears run and normally funds the possession claim too. It costs roughly £150 to £300 a year on a standard let, on top of the landlord premium you already pay.
| What matters | Personal guarantor | Rent guarantee insurance |
| Who pays you | The guarantor, once you demand and enforce | The insurer, monthly, after the excess period |
| Cost to you | £0, plus referencing time | £150 to £300 a year on a standard let |
| Limit on recovery | Unlimited unless the deed caps it | Usually £2,500 to £3,000 a month for 6 to 12 months |
| Speed of payment | Weeks to months, often a County Court claim | Typically 30 to 60 days after the first missed rent |
| Legal costs of possession | Recoverable only if the deed says so | Legal expenses cover normally included |
| Damage and council tax | Yes, if the deed is drafted for it | No, rent and legal costs only |
| Depends on tenant referencing | No, the guarantor is referenced instead | Yes, cover fails if referencing was not completed |
| Ends on the tenant’s death | Yes, since 1 May 2026 | No, the policy runs to its own terms |
Using both on a higher-risk let
For a first-time renter or a self-employed tenant, take a guarantor and buy the policy. The guarantor deters default, the policy pays the mortgage, and loss of rent cover deals with the separate case of the property becoming uninhabitable.
Most insurers will not write rent guarantee cover unless the tenant passed referencing or an accepted guarantor is on file. Check that condition before you rely on the policy.
How do you enforce against a guarantor?
Write first with a dated statement of account, then issue a money claim in the County Court if payment does not follow. You do not have to sue the tenant first, provided the deed makes the guarantee a primary obligation.
The demand letter and the paper trail
Send the arrears schedule, the executed deed and the tenancy agreement together. The Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims expects you to allow 30 days for a reply before issuing.
Legal expenses cover on a landlord policy usually funds this stage. Without it you are paying a solicitor out of money you have not yet recovered.
Claim, judgment and recovery
Claims up to £10,000 run on the small claims track, so recoverable costs are limited even when you win. A county court judgment stays on the register for six years and is usually what prompts payment.
| Stage | What it involves | Typical timescale | Who normally funds it |
| Written demand | Arrears schedule plus a copy of the deed | 30 days to reply | Landlord, postage only |
| Letter before claim | Pre-action protocol letter from a solicitor | 30 days | Legal expenses cover, if held |
| Money claim issued | County Court claim against the guarantor | 3 to 6 months to judgment | Landlord, fee recoverable on judgment |
| Judgment entered | Debt registered against the guarantor | Immediate | Guarantor |
| Enforcement | Attachment of earnings, charging order or bailiffs | 1 to 6 months | Guarantor, if assets exist |
| Possession claim | Separate Section 8 claim on the arrears ground | Runs in parallel | Landlord or legal expenses cover |
Possession runs on a separate track
The mandatory arrears ground now needs 13 weeks of unpaid rent, roughly three months on a monthly tenancy. Chasing the guarantor does not delay a possession claim, and the two can be run at the same time.
A guarantor who pays the arrears below the threshold will defeat the mandatory ground. Decide early whether you want the money or the property back.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
No law requires it, and income and credit history matter more. Landlords still prefer one because a charging order is easier to enforce than an attachment of earnings.
Yes, if the pension income or savings pass the affordability test. Some referencing firms accept documented savings in place of the earnings multiple.
Only with the landlord’s written agreement or under a release clause in the deed. Most landlords want a replacement guarantor or a rent guarantee policy first.
Only if the deed says so. A rent-only guarantee cannot be stretched to cover dilapidations after the event.
The Renters’ Rights Act protection covers the tenant’s death, not the guarantor’s. Liability already accrued usually passes to the estate, and you can ask the tenant for a replacement.
Yes, but the exposure adds together and referencing should test the combined figure. If both tenants default in the same month, the guarantor owes both rents.
No. The guarantor has to pass referencing in their own right, and you can still decline for other reasons.
No. A guarantor is a relevant person under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, so any charge is a prohibited payment.
No, and neither does your landlord policy. Tenants need their own renters contents insurance for anything they bring into the property.
Yes, and it is common for international students and tenants with no UK family. The tenant pays a fee of roughly three to four weeks’ rent a year, and the firm gives the guarantee in writing.