Student campaigners demand ban on guarantor requirements for tenants

Student campaigners demand ban on guarantor requirements for tenants

9:57 AM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago 45

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The National Union of Students (NUS) is calling on the government to make it illegal for landlords to require tenants to have a UK-based guarantor.

Student campaigners argue that the current housing system is “predicated on exploitation and profit extraction,” leaving many student renters vulnerable.

This demand follows an NUS survey revealing that one-third of students are struggling to afford housing costs, with 17% forced to rely on food banks.

Students are suffering at the hands of the housing system

According to the NUS survey, 60% of student renters were required to have a guarantor and 40% of respondents found the process of securing one difficult.

The survey says international students and low-income students face the most difficulty and stress when trying to find a guarantor as they do not have access to the same funds or security net that others may have.

NUS UK President Amira Campbell said: “The results of this research lay bare what we sadly already knew, students and apprentices across the UK are suffering at the hands of a housing system predicated on exploitation and profit extraction.

“We should be ashamed as a society that we are allowing policies like the requirement for a UK-based guarantor to stand as a barrier in the way of our most vulnerable students having a safe and secure place to live.

“Our country’s unfair and inequitable housing system is limiting students and apprentices from feeling part of their communities. We need urgent action from the UK government, and devolved governments in all the nations across the UK, to fix this system and help student renters.”

Nearly half of students have experienced mould or mildew

Other key findings from the survey reveal that 84% of student renters reported encountering issues with their housing, including 48% who have experienced mould or mildew, 44% issues with heating or cooling, and 20% with pest infestations.

Housing costs were confirmed as a continuing problem for students and apprentices with over a third of students (36%) indicating they have difficulty paying their housing costs. Almost 40% of those report going without heating, and 17% have used a food bank.

A third of students (32%) say that they didn’t feel part of their community, which the NUS claims shows the isolating nature of the current student housing system.


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Paul Essex

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11:40 AM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

A lot of the PBSA have increased their costs up to the full amount of the maintenance loan - this is who they should be complaining about.

Dennis Leverett

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12:35 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

I just don't get all this leftie rubbish. If its not a problem why don't the SU, Universities etc. guarantee the rent. The thinking of these people is so far from reality its crazy. All decent students would not worry about providing a guarantor because they know it will not be needed. The parents also know if their student children are not going to be a problem. As usual there are always the idiots who expect to get away with not paying their rent or looking after the property. Many moons ago I used to let to students of a blue chip local company who paid the rent. I wasn't much older than them myself but kept a close check on them and no problems. The occasional motorcycle being repaired in the kitchen but as long as they kept it all reasonably clean no problem. This world is going balmy.

Keith Wellburn

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12:43 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

‘Issues’ with heating etc. If that is problems that were not dealt with efficiently then fair enough.

If it just means there was a boiler breakdown etc that was subsequently rectified then for crying out loud grow up and become part of the real world that everyone else lives in.

david porter

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12:54 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

Reply to the comment left by Edward Hammond at 20/11/2024 - 10:09
It must be the Pantomine season again?
As Widow Twankey says;
No Tikee
No Washee!
Or,
put it another way
it is my bat and my ball

david porter

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13:04 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

"Our country’s unfair and inequitable housing system"
yes,
that is right
it drives Landlords nuts

Ian Narbeth

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13:11 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

Thankfully, nobody takes the NUS seriously. Even the thickest Labour MP can work out that if a landlord is expected to grant credit to someone with no job, no income and no prospect of one (apart from part-time work whilst at college), the landlord will want a guarantor.

When I was at university in the 1980s it was made clear that if we had any debts at the end of our course, our creditors could come forward and we would not receive our degree!

Mike W

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13:16 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

I won't bother to comment on a report which seems based upon a premise that one is entitled to free housing - someone else pays. (We know how well the communist system worked.)
My insurance company requires a guarantor for any tenant without adequate income. The university provides a limited number of guarantees (one month rent limit). They at least can refuse to graduate them if there are unpaid obligations.
I explain to students how a joint tenancy works and that the guarantor is there to protect other tenants from a bad egg. And I explain why the guarantor needs to be in the UK.
As for mould I provide extensive documentation (from council) on how damp is caused by lifestyle and I have an extensive library of photographs to demonstrate that previous tenants had no problem.
The main problem is parents don't teach them how to live on their own.

Dylan Morris

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13:41 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

Just let to U.K. students who can provide a U.K. guarantor. Shame for foreign students but at least they won’t be bringing their Mom and Dad, Siblings and Grandparents with them whilst they study…… and never go back.

Yvonne Francis

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14:27 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

I couldn't possibly rent to students without a Guarantor. Generally students are young and have no capital or history of paying rent. If that was the case I could no longer let to them. 

As for International students I think Universities should be the Guarantor. They are only too happy to take their vastly higher fees but do not help them if they want to live in PRS. How students afford places in the PBSA, I just don't know.

It all seems to me: 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'. 

Vibha Spal

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15:52 PM, 20th November 2024, About a month ago

It is the way students live in the properties, that causes dampness and mould. Also students when they leave you find chocolate and sweet and cake wrappers,some dry foods like rice and crackers. This causes a variety of rodents in the house and the loft.
Getting the pest control, someone to sort out the holes and insulation again is a very costly deal for landlords. The rental guarantors are essential as how do the LL know that the rent will be paid by the students if there are charities, NUS and others advising them it is ok not to pay to LL. Landlords are not there to take their parents place.
This campaign is ludicrous teaching the students to not pay rent. A lot of the students are not responsible people, so parents have to be guarantors, so why do the NUS interfere in such issues.

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