Student leaders from across the UK are travelling to Westminster today to meet their MPs. We have only one ask: abolish guarantors.
As the Renters’ Rights Bill moves through a new Parliament, we can alleviate a barrier to housing for so many of our most vulnerable students: international students, students from low-income families, estranged students and care leavers.
Some readers of this blog may be unfamiliar with the way guarantor requirements discriminate against both these specific groups of students, and in fact, many renters residing here in the UK.
When a student applies for private rented accommodation, they are almost always asked to provide a guarantor. This guarantor is usually expected to be a parent or relative who owns a house in the UK or earns a certain income (generally above average), who will guarantee payment of rent should the tenant refuse to pay. This is required alongside a deposit.
Landlords’ requirements do not stop at this. I regularly hear from students being asked to provide six or even 12 months’ rent up front, to pay non-refundable holding fees whilst their guarantors are being “vetted” or to spend hundreds on guarantor schemes each year.
The most vulnerable renters are being charged on top of their rent and their deposits, all because their parents are not rich enough in the first place, don’t hold British nationality, or are not in touch with them anymore. This doesn’t stop on graduation: in London, to rent without a guarantor, someone must earn 30 times their monthly rent.
For students who come from a family that owns a home, with good credit history, good relationships and financial stability – getting a guarantor is a stumbling block to accessing housing. It’s another significant bit of admin, a potentially awkward conversation with a worried parent about picking responsible housemates and making sure they too pay up on time.
For international students, for estranged students, for working-class students: this is not just another form to fill in. It is causing homelessness.
As NUS UK President, I have been touring the country since taking office in July.
On my tours around campuses, I have spoken to students at freshers’ fairs, excited to join societies and start their studies, who have come to our stall and told me that they are sleeping on their friend’s sofa with no idea of what they are going to.
On my tours across freshers’ fairs, I have spoken to third and fourth years who are grabbing freebies and recalling to me ‘having slept with 7 of us in a room for days until everyone had a place, because what else are we going to do?’
On my tours training the student leaders of our country, I have had our student representatives tell me that it was not long ago that they were sleeping in a park, or a library for what felt like endless nights because they couldn’t access a property that did not require a guarantor.
I have been fortunate during my time as a student. I didn’t have to provide a guarantor for the three years that I was at university. But whilst searching for property for my year as the president of Birmingham Guild, I put down a holding fee on a property where my father was rejected as a guarantor. I lost that fee and that house and did not find a house that would have me without a guarantor until four days before I had to move out of my previous address.
This is for NUS, of course, a question of students’ rights and choices. However, in a world where we know that universities are struggling to keep their student numbers up, we should all be worried that 14% of students from a low-income background have reconsidered their study destination because of concerns about accommodation costs. These same students who may be asked to pay their rent upfront due to lack of a guarantor.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Both Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield have operated guarantor schemes for eight and seven years respectively and have never had to make a payment. The student housing provider Unipol has a proud history of never requiring guarantors and has managed student accommodation successfully for 49 years.
Furthermore, student landlords can take out rental insurance, and they already take deposits from students, and they can use tenant referencing services.
An alternative to individual guarantors – a national, government-backed scheme, for example, or paying into a private guarantor service, or even a rollout of guarantor schemes across all higher education institutions – would be both costly and administratively burdensome.
As students, we don’t want to add more complexity to renting, more work for universities, or more barriers to accessing housing: we just want to be able to afford to pay our rent, and get decent quality housing in return for it, without the additional barriers that come with guarantor requirements.
The Renters’ Rights Bill is a huge opportunity to do away with requirements for guarantors. We’d urge all policy makers and Parliamentarians reading this to discuss this issue – or even better, come by Westminster Central Hall today and meet some students ready to share their experiences with you.
