<p>The problem is that some of us, like me, don’t like to sigh something that can put one liable for a huge amount, maybe an unaffordable amount just because no one ever really does this. I’d feel like an ass to be the first one so stuck.</p>
<p>But then you have the kid who has his friends and the place lined up begging for you to sign.</p>
<p>Few 21-year-olds have a meaningful credit history, and if they are full-time students, their income is usually minimal. A landlord is smart to want to have someone with real employment and a real credit history on the hook.</p>
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<p>I can personally confirm that there exists at least one apartment in the US that does this. I would guess it is standard practice. What they told me is that as long as you’re an undergrad, they want a parent to cosign. Grad students I guess they don’t need one.</p>
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<p>I hear you. But on the other hand majority of landlords have mortgage and property taxes to pay. They need to protect their investment and their family too.</p>
<p>This discussion should be bookmarked for the next time a parent starts a thread railing about how expensive college dorms are and how much money they can save if their kid moves off-campus.</p>
<p>Well- yes and no. I have friends who have gotten stuck financially for their kids apartments when something unforeseen happened with the “Best Friends Forever/roommate”. Yes- your kids friend can be the nicest person in the entire world but if it’s your name on the lease and your friends kids parents are getting divorced and Dad has absconded leaving mom with $3000 in the checking account and no other liquid assets… yes, it will all get worked out in arbitration or in front of a judge- but can you can afford to take on this financial responsibility for the rest of the lease period? Or how about a kids parent declaring bankruptcy mid-year, telling their kid “it won’t impact your college situation whatsoever” except of course when their rent checks and utility checks start to bounce in November with you on the hook for the entire lease?</p>
<p>At least when your kid is in a dorm, it’s the college’s problem of how to budget for bounced checks and family strife- you’re not expected to cover the roommates share!</p>
<p>So to answer the OP- yes, it is standard operating procedure in many college locales. No, don’t sign the lease if you cannot afford to cover the rent in case something happens to the roommate or roommates (kids drop out- get sick- go on academic probation and decide not to return in January). Unless you can figure out how to go after a kid who is no longer in college to get their share of the rent and utilities- tread carefully. The landlord wouldn’t be asking you if he/she hadn’t been burned in the past by renting to students.</p>
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<p>As a former landlord I always had my leases written the way the OP reports. If the tenants had disputes they could work that out themselves. I needed to get paid. I know it sounds mean, but it is business. If I were the OP I would want to have an agreement drawn up between the tenants to mitigate risk.</p>
<p>Edited to add: I was not renting to college students but rather to unmarried couples.</p>
<p>We have some units we rent to students and they are rented by the bedroom. Parents are not involved in the matter, each student signs his or her own lease for their share of the rent. If one of them isn’t paying it has nothing to do with the others. One negative for the students in this situation is that if “Anna” isn’t paying and we ask her to leave, we are free to put whomever we think will work out in Anna’s room. Not to say we would put Richard Speck in a house of nurses, but they might end up with a stranger if they cannot find a suitable replacement themselves.</p>
<p>OP, you most likely can legally be held liable for the whole thing if one of the other two doesn’t pay. This is the risk. Don’t sign if you can’t do it. THere probably are other housing arrangements (although perhaps less desirable ones) available somewhere. Dorm waitlist?</p>
<p>An agreement among the roommates and guarantors could serve to spread the risk back out pro rata, but you could find yourself owing the landlord, and being forced to sue the other parties to get the money (if you can collect).</p>
<p>Also, what if the other two boys left the school for any reason? Wouldn’t your son be responsible for the entire lease?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these risks are usually left to the tenant, not the landlord. Off campus housing comes with these issues.</p>
<p>And not to mess with your head- but in many college towns, leases are for 12 months, but college runs for 8 or 9 months. So your kid needs to either find a tenant or be prepared to pay for housing he may not need during the summer. Therefore- make sure the lease allows you to sublet for the summer months so you don’t end up paying for an empty apartment.</p>
<p>Joint and several liability is the norm in leases. There are some student housing complexes that rent by the room, where each student is only liable for his or her own share. The fact that all the parents sign the same guarantee can give you some comfort, but the landlord is free to go after the tenants and the guarantors (or not) in the order he chooses, so it’s still a risky proposition.</p>
<p>As for students over 21, if they’re students it generally doesn’t matter - the landlord is looking for credit and adequate income, something full time students don’t tend to have, whether they’re 21 or not.</p>
<p>kayf - ALL the parents must sign an agreement. I am not signing for them, I am signing my own. But each parent is a guarantor for the entire amount, in case the other two become, I guess, deadbeats. I’ve been talking to one of the other moms already. She feels like me…we don’t have other options now. It’s too late to apply for housing (and it’s a risk that you won’t get a dorm in the junior year anyway), and finding a place off campus will be a challenge now.</p>
<p>“Actually in my state the laws are extremely pro-tenant and this kind of agreement is used as one of the few protections available to them.”</p>
<p>Apparently this is not the case in my state. Pretty much every single apartment does it this way - I’ve been doing research since I created this post. Kinda sucks…but that’s the way it is.</p>
<p>" This discussion should be bookmarked for the next time a parent starts a thread railing about how expensive college dorms are and how much money they can save if their kid moves off-campus"</p>
<p>I totally agree. I did the math, and I already knew that the dorm was more affordable. My son wanted an apartment last year, and I said NO WAY. Shoulda stuck to my guns this year, except that I know the college has fewer dorms available for upperclassmen, and there is a greater chance he would not get one this year.</p>
<p>VT- you are guaranteeing not only in the case that the other students become deadbeats (which I take it to mean that they decide they WON"T pay) but also in case they CAN’T pay. Kid drops out, gets sick, asked to take a semester off; parent gets sick or disabled and can’t pay; parents who are otherwise affluent get stuck in a nasty divorce/separation battle and use the kids tuition and rent as weapons; etc.</p>
<p>In my own life whenever I’ve felt that I’ve had no other options (especially in a somewhat expensive financial decision) I always take a step back until I can see the whole picture and realize that there ARE other options. Signing a lease which you can’t afford seems to me to be a less than optimal decision right now.</p>
<p>Next week AFTER your kid has contacted the dean of housing and told “no vacancies” or “sure we have vacancies” or “you can go on the waiting list and will probably get housing” you will feel like a chump if you sign today. Next week when your kid has gotten together with the others and decided that the parents can’t afford to be on the hook for the entire amount so they need plan B- sure, then your back is against the wall. But sign now just because it will be a challenge finding another apartment or it’s risky to try to get a dorm room after the deadline???</p>
<p>Jeez. Sounds like an expensive decision to make just to avoid having to tell your kid to explore other options first.</p>
<p>" And not to mess with your head- but in many college towns, leases are for 12 months, but college runs for 8 or 9 months. So your kid needs to either find a tenant or be prepared to pay for housing he may not need during the summer. Therefore- make sure the lease allows you to sublet for the summer months so you don’t end up paying for an empty apartment."</p>
<p>Of course, we knew that the leases were for 12 months. I’ve already done all the figures, and computed the totals compared to the dorm costs. But this will give my son the opportunity to stay in the summer and take summer classes, which he wants to do. So I am fine with that.</p>
<p>"VT- you are guaranteeing not only in the case that the other students become deadbeats (which I take it to mean that they decide they WON"T pay) but also in case they CAN’T pay. Kid drops out, gets sick, asked to take a semester off; parent gets sick or disabled and can’t pay; parents who are otherwise affluent get stuck in a nasty divorce/separation battle and use the kids tuition and rent as weapons; etc.</p>
<p>In my own life whenever I’ve felt that I’ve had no other options (especially in a somewhat expensive financial decision) I always take a step back until I can see the whole picture and realize that there ARE other options. Signing a lease which you can’t afford seems to me to be a less than optimal decision right now.</p>
<p>Next week AFTER your kid has contacted the dean of housing and told “no vacancies” or “sure we have vacancies” or “you can go on the waiting list and will probably get housing” you will feel like a chump if you sign today. Next week when your kid has gotten together with the others and decided that the parents can’t afford to be on the hook for the entire amount so they need plan B- sure, then your back is against the wall. But sign now just because it will be a challenge finding another apartment or it’s risky to try to get a dorm room after the deadline???</p>
<p>Jeez. Sounds like an expensive decision to make just to avoid having to tell your kid to explore other options first."</p>
<p>Not sure where you are from, but housing in this particular area fills up quickly. Kids that need off-campus housing must secure it in the fall, for the next year. We are past that point. And frankly, I don’t have the time to drive the 6 hours over several weekends to help him find a garage apartment or something of that nature. At this point, I will have to sign. Since this does appear to be a standard procedure, and I know both boys and at least one set of parents, I think my risk is a bit lessened. I assure you I don’t feel like a “chump”. I just wanted to get other’s experiences with the same sort of agreement.</p>
<p>I know people who had problems in these kinds of situations, where one roommate wasn’t paying his/her share of the rent. They had to pony up for it, but were able to turn around and sue that other roommate for the money that roommate didn’t pay. </p>
<p>So the landlord holds everybody responsible, then it’s up to the other tenants to battle it out in court.</p>
<p>My DS is in student apartments that rent by the bedroom. Each student (and each student’s parents, regardless of the student’s age) signs a lease agreement for their portion only.</p>
<p>Maybe they do it this way so we don’t do the math. They could rent quite a spacious house with the combined money! </p>
<p>OP, $1100 may be a very good deal - especially for Santa Barbara. My son is in Fresno and the combined rent for 4 students (each with their own bedroom/bath but with one small livingroom/kitchen) is over twice this amount.</p>
<p>Where Happykid studies, apartments can only be rented to two non-related people, so the standard practice is for two (with their guarantors) to sign the lease. Other roommates have formal subleases with one of the primary tenants. All tenants (primary and sub) must show evidence of renters insurance in a given amount. Crazy to me, but so far it is working.</p>
<p>When my first was in college, we co-signed a lease, parents were joint & severaly liable, meaning any one parent could be called upon to pay the entire lease amount. There were some issues that year, DD moved out a few months before the lease was up and we had tried for a few months before that to get a new roommate.</p>
<p>We paid DDs share of the rent until the end of the term. That stunk, we told the other kids we would NOT co-sign. To be honest, had we not co-signed, I would have let DD take the hit on her credit score as a lesson, it would have taken her several years to recover and that would have been fine with me at the time.</p>
<p>One interesting fact, if your student has a financial aid package, be that grants or loans, many landlords will forgo parent cosigning based on that official package being faxed to them.</p>
<p>One DDs landlord rented a big house with 20 tenants and each set of roommates only had to guarantee their room, not the entire building.</p>