Letting Agent & Landlord won't accept me rescinding as a Guarantor

[hitman126]

I signed to be a guarantor for a friend when she rented a property nearly 5 years ago. The tenancy was a 12 month AST. 

Earlier this year I decided it was time to rescind my guarantorship and so both myself and the Tenant notified the Letting Agent and all other relevant parties to remove my name from that arrangement and relieve me of that obligation. The tenant by the way has never defaulted on her rent to this day, throughout the entire tenancy.

It has been over 6 months since this change request was initiated, but what has since transpired has been a case of the Letting Agent and Landlord deliberately doing everything to frustrate me and responding with countless misleading email responses that they're still awaiting a response from such and such agent, landlord, some individual, etc, etc.

After months of putting up with their games, I recently issued them with a deadline and ultimatum that if they failed to implement the change requested jointly by the Tenant and myself by close of business Friday, 06 Oct 2023, I would report the matter to the appropriate authorities. They eventually came back to advise that the Landlord has advised that he'd like the Guarantorship arrangements to remain in place.

As far as the tenancy is concerned, here are some key details to describe the current status.

• The rent was increased on a new tenancy agreement issued about a couple of years ago, without any notice to me.
• The tenancy lapsed into a periodic tenancy more than a year ago, as no new tenancy agreement was issued to the tenant at the end of the previous term.

I therefore have a few questions for which I hope some of our esteemed and knowledgeable forum members here can assist with. I'd like to know the following:

1. Where or how would be the best route for me to seek redress to my grievance?
2. Would it be valid to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office for continued misuse of my personal data by the Letting Agents/Landlord, etc?
3. I am led to believe that changes to the original tenancy, for example, the rent increase of which I was not notified, renders the original guarantorship to now become invalid. Is this indeed the case?
4. I am led to believe that when a tenancy lapses into a periodic tenancy, a Guarantor's obligation can/should cease. Is this the case?
5. Can a guarantorship arrangement continue in perpetuity?
6. Can a Landlord and/or Letting Agent impose guarantor obligations on a person, even where the Guarantor and Tenant, two main principal parties, have asked for that arrangement to be terminated?

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[Ethel Street]

Please upload the guarantee document that you signed 5 years ago. Cover up all information that would identify you, your friend or the property.

The starting point for issues about guaranteeship is what the deed of guarantee says.

If you succeed in terminating your guarantee is there a risk the landlord will issue a s21 notice to evict your friend? Although that would seem a remarkably short-sighted thing to do when they have a tenant who apparently has been a good tenant for years, always paid rent on time, presumably has looked after the property and complies with all terms of the tenancy. Is your tenant finacially  'stable', in employment and able to afford the rent in the future?

[hitman126]

Hi @Ethel Street very grateful for your response.

I will indeed try and upload the deed as best as I can, although as it's a PDF file and therefore not easily editable, I'll simply use my Windows snipping tool to snip and share the relevant section. 

Regarding your other queries, perhaps my feedback will be as follows:

1. If I remember correctly, S21s were recently abolished and so that eviction route is shut anyway. The tenant though has revealed that the Landlord served her notice to vacate the property some time ago, as he was seeking to sell the property.

2. The tenant is in active employment within the health service, extremely hard-working, and has been actively progressing her career as a specialist health professional, so she frankly ticks all the usual boxes.

[Ethel Street]

18 minutes ago, hitman126 said:

I'll simply use my Windows snipping tool to snip and share the relevant section. 

Or use my low-tech workaround: print out a copy, cover up bits I want to hide with a black felt tip marker, then recopy and upload that  (I'm not very techie!)

[hitman126]

8 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

Or use my low-tech workaround: print out a copy, cover up bits I want to hide with a black felt tip marker, then recopy and upload that  (I'm not very techie!)

Lol..........I actually forgot I had access to some tools that could allow me to edit the file. I've cropped out all personal data and have attached it below. Thanks

 

 

guarantor_agreement.pdf

[Ethel Street]

19 minutes ago, hitman126 said:

The tenant though has revealed that the Landlord served her notice to vacate the property some time ago, as he was seeking to sell the property.

Legislation to ban s21 is going through parliament but AFAIK is some way from actually getting into law so at the moment I think a LL could still use it. 

But your comment "The tenant though has revealed that the Landlord served her notice to vacate the property some time ago, as he was seeking to sell the property." sounds like she has already been served with a s21 notice. Is that correct? How has she responded to this?

[hitman126]

Thanks @Ethel Street

Rather than me trying to second-guess, I've messaged the tenant at work and expect her to provide some feedback to those queries very shortly.

[hitman126]

56 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

Legislation to ban s21 is going through parliament but AFAIK is some way from actually getting into law so at the moment I think a LL could still use it. 

But your comment "The tenant though has revealed that the Landlord served her notice to vacate the property some time ago, as he was seeking to sell the property." sounds like she has already been served with a s21 notice. Is that correct? How has she responded to this?

So feedback received is that, yes the tenant was served with a S21 notice back in approximately February of this year, with the landlord demanding that the family move out by July. This was then followed by another letter from the landlord's solicitors, asking them to vacate the property by middle of this month. Tenant says she's not responded yet to this second notice from the solicitors.   

[Ethel Street]

OK, that probably explains why LL doesn't want to release you from the guarantee. LL probably thinks that a tenant under a s21 notice might stop paying rent before they move out. 

Is tenant taking advice from housing charities or legal advice on her options? It's not something I know a lot about but there's excellent guidance on the Shelter website.

Section 21 eviction - Shelter England

Once she actually leaves your guarantee terminates and the issue is resolved per para 7 of the Guarantor Agreement.

 

[hitman126]

So tenant told me a couple of days ago she's seeking advice through the Citizens Advice Bureau regarding her eviction. And you are right, the LL has probably taken that defiant stance on my guarantorship, based on the knowledge that the tenant is expected to leave the property imminently.

I myself wasn't aware of the full details and specific timelines regarding her S21 Notice until our conversation a couple of days ago and indeed a few minutes ago. It was purely coincidental that I requested to be taken off as a guarantor, just around the time when she was also being evicted.

In all honesty, it's not at all a big deal for me whether or not I remain her guarantor as I fully trust her and her family, but it's just that when earlier this year I received another annual renewal notification via email from a company called Zero Deposit, relating to her tenancy and my guarantorship, I just felt it was about time I broke away from any such obligation and hence my subsequent action. I'd frankly lost complete track of the fact I was her guarantor until that renewal notification came in. It's just a useful lesson learned for the future, I guess.

[Andrew-P]

I can confirm that S21 is very much still active and in place and I think its potential ending might not be as good for tenants as many think as a number will end up with at fault terminations instead.  (but that's another issue).  As S21 is a no fault eviction it may be that the landlord is looking to do something else with the property e.g. sell it and is no reflection on the tenant or their conduct.

The determination as to whether you remain as a guarantor until the landlord ends it will depend on the terms of what you originally signed.  The form I use limits it to the tenancy period and rather than issue an extension I prefer to issue a new agreement but there are examples where extensions can include for the guarantee to be extended and there is nothing (or little) that can be done about it.

Be careful with Citizens Advice as they may not be specialist in Tenancy Law