A guarantor agreement you can send the same day

A guarantor agreement is the document in which somebody other than the tenant promises to cover the tenant's obligations if the tenant does not. DocuTenant builds it as a deed of guarantee, filled in from the property, the tenancy and a handful of answers, so it can go out the same day rather than next week.

What this agreement is

Three parties: the landlord, the tenant or tenants, and the guarantor. One property. One promise, set out in four covenants: to pay the rent and other sums due if the tenant does not, to make good a breach of the tenant's obligations within a reasonable time of being told about it, to compensate the landlord for loss, damage, costs or expenses arising from a breach, and to take on a new tenancy on the same terms for the remainder of the term if the tenancy is disclaimed or forfeited and the landlord requires it.

Around that sit the limit of liability, the duration, the guarantor's acknowledgements, the governing law, and the execution block.

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The guarantor's name and address, and their relationship to the tenant, which can be parent, relative, employer or something you type.

The limit: either the full amount of rent, charges and losses without limit, or a specific figure you set, which the document then states as a cap on the guarantor's total liability.

The duration: the duration of the tenancy including any continuation or renewal, a fixed period with an end date, or until the tenant passes satisfactory referencing checks.

That is the whole form. The tenant names, the property, the tenancy start date, the rent and the deposit come from your records, and where there is no tenancy yet you type them in, because a guarantor is usually agreed before a tenancy exists. Previewing is free and unlimited with no account. £9 buys this document type at this property permanently with free regeneration, and Pro is £9.99 a month or £89 a year.

When you need one

A first-time renter with no rental history for a referencing agency to look at. A student. An applicant whose income is low against the rent. Someone new to the country whose employment and credit history mostly sits somewhere else.

In each case the applicant may be perfectly reliable and simply unprovable on paper. A guarantor is what turns that into a decision you can make. Take the tenant application form first, so you are asking every applicant the same questions, and bring the guarantor in once you know who you are dealing with.

What the agreement covers

The parties, named, with the guarantor's relationship to the tenant shown next to their name and their address recorded underneath. The property, in full. The tenancy details: start date, monthly rent and deposit, where those are known.

Then the recitals, which state why the deed exists: the landlord has agreed to grant a tenancy on the terms of the tenancy agreement, the guarantor has agreed to guarantee the tenant's obligations, and the deed is entered into as a condition of the landlord granting the tenancy.

Then the guarantee itself, the limit, the duration, and five acknowledgements by the guarantor: that they have received a copy of the tenancy agreement and understand its terms, that they understand the nature and extent of what they are guaranteeing, that they have been advised to take independent legal advice, that their liability is not affected by a variation of the tenancy agreement or by time given to the tenant, and that the guarantee is a continuing obligation.

Signing it correctly

A guarantee is only worth having if it is executed properly, so the document is laid out to make that hard to get wrong. It is headed as a deed and states that it has been executed as a deed and delivered on the date shown.

The execution block gives the guarantor and the landlord a side each, and each side carries a full witness block underneath the signature: witness signature, witness name, witness address and witness occupation. Those lines are printed rather than assumed, because a witness who signed their name and nothing else is the most common gap in a homemade guarantee.

The deed also records that the guarantor was advised to seek independent legal advice, which is a fact about the document rather than a substitute for that advice.

England and Scotland

The agreement works in both. The governing law clause reads the jurisdiction of the property and states the law of England and Wales, or the law of Scotland, accordingly.

The guide to guarantor agreements covers the legal background in depth, so this page does not repeat it. See also all 47 templates and what £9 per document type per property buys.

One agreement, and the governing law follows the property. The deed states that it is governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales, or the law of Scotland, depending on the jurisdiction recorded against the property. You do not pick a version.

It is drafted as a deed, and the execution block is the part to take seriously. The document is headed a deed of guarantee, states that it has been executed as a deed and delivered on the date shown, and gives the guarantor and the landlord a witness block each with lines for the witness signature, name, address and occupation. Those lines exist because that is where homemade guarantees usually fail.

The guarantor's acknowledgements are on the face of the document. That they received a copy of the tenancy agreement, that they understand the extent of the obligations, that they were advised to take independent legal advice, that their liability survives a variation of the tenancy or time given to the tenant, and that the guarantee is a continuing obligation.

This page does not try to teach the law of guarantees. The guide to guarantor agreements does that properly. This page is about getting the document built and signed.