A guarantor can be one of the most useful tools a self-managing landlord has — or one of the most misleading. Done properly, a guarantor gives you a realistic route to recover losses if a tenancy goes wrong, without having to rely entirely on court action against a tenant who may have very little to their name. Done badly, you end up with someone who signed something they didn’t understand, whose liability quietly expired after a renewal, or whose guarantee was never properly executed in the first place and won’t hold up if you need to rely on it.
This post is for self-managing landlords in England. It’s practical guidance, not legal advice.
What a guarantor is actually agreeing to
A guarantor is someone who signs a written guarantee committing to pay the tenant’s rent if the tenant doesn’t, and in some cases to cover other costs too — damage, for instance — depending on what the guarantee says. That last part is where many guarantor arrangements go wrong. The scope of the guarantee isn’t fixed by law; it’s fixed by the document. Some guarantees cover rent only; some cover rent and damage; some cover “all tenant obligations,” which can be considerably broader. If you haven’t thought carefully about what yours covers, the chances are it covers something different from what you assumed.
When a guarantor genuinely helps
A guarantor is most useful when a tenant is likely to pay most of the time reliably, but is vulnerable to the kind of one-off shock — a gap between jobs, a delayed benefit payment, a difficult few months — that could tip them into arrears. The guarantor isn’t there to cover a tenant who never intended to pay; they’re there to cover a tenant who usually would but temporarily can’t. That backstop can stop a manageable situation from becoming an expensive and time-consuming one.
Guarantors are also commonly used for students and first-time renters with limited credit histories, but who are otherwise low risk. In those cases, a properly drafted guarantee can be the difference between a landlord feeling comfortable offering a tenancy and turning someone down on the basis of thin references alone. For self-managing landlords who don’t have the buffer of an agent or a large portfolio to absorb the occasional loss, having a credible guarantor in place can make a real difference to how confidently you manage a tenancy.
When a guarantor gives you false confidence
The situations where guarantors cause problems are fairly predictable, and most of them come down to paperwork rather than bad faith.
The guarantor can’t actually pay.
A guarantor who is happy to sign but doesn’t have a stable income or accessible assets is a paper guarantee. Citizens Advice notes that landlords often check a guarantor’s financial position in much the same way as they check the tenant’s. If the guarantor couldn’t realistically cover two or three months’ rent in a worst-case scenario, it’s worth treating the guarantee as weak rather than as a safety net.
The scope wasn’t clearly explained.
In joint tenancies, especially, guarantees are sometimes drafted so that the guarantor is liable for the entire tenancy, not just the share of the person they intended to back. That can be powerful for landlords, but it’s also where disputes arise if the guarantor later says they had no idea they were taking on responsibility for everyone in the property. Shelter’s guidance is clear that guarantors need to understand the full scope of what they’re signing up for — and if they don’t, that creates a dispute you don’t want.
The tenancy changed, and nobody updated the guarantee.
This is probably the most common way guarantees quietly stop working. If the tenancy is renewed, extended, or varied in a material way, you may need the guarantor to confirm in writing that their guarantee continues to apply. If you don’t, you can end up in a situation where the guarantee technically only covers the original fixed term, which is exactly when you’re unlikely to need it anyway.
The paperwork wasn’t executed properly.
Many guarantees are set up as deeds, so the formalities for signing matter. NRLA guarantor documents are structured as deeds of guarantee for precisely this reason, and deed formalities — including independent witnessing — are a real requirement, not a box-ticking exercise. If the execution was casual, enforcement becomes harder. It’s not always fatal to the guarantee, but it’s an unnecessary problem to have created.
What the paperwork actually needs
Use a proper guarantee document, not a clause in the tenancy agreement.
A vague line in the tenancy agreement stating that someone will act as a guarantor is not the same as a properly drafted deed of guarantee. NRLA provides specific deed templates for this reason — a standalone document with clear terms is far more enforceable than a casual reference buried in the main agreement.
Be specific about what the guarantee covers.
Decide in advance whether you want the guarantee to cover rent only, rent and damage, or all tenant obligations. Then make sure the document clearly reflects that. Broad guarantees can be harder to explain to a guarantor and more likely to be challenged later. “Rent plus proven damage costs” is often a more practical and defensible scope than something open-ended.
Give the guarantor the tenancy agreement before they sign.
This sounds obvious, but it’s regularly skipped. NRLA-style deed wording explicitly flags that the guarantor should be given a completed tenancy agreement and enough time to read it before signing the guarantee. If the guarantor hasn’t seen the tenancy terms, it’s much easier for them to later argue they didn’t understand the full extent of their liability.
Get the witnessing right.
If you’re using a deed, the guarantor’s signature needs to be witnessed. Don’t use the tenant as a witness, and don’t use anyone who could be seen as connected to the transaction. Use an independent adult and record their full name, address, and occupation if your template requires it. It takes five minutes, and it matters.
Consider suggesting independent legal advice.
Some landlord guidance recommends encouraging guarantors to take their own legal advice before signing, partly because it removes any later argument about undue influence or misunderstanding. You don’t need to make it a condition, but mentioning it — and noting it in your records — is a reasonable step, especially for larger guarantees.
Be clear about how long the guarantee lasts.
The guarantee should explicitly state whether it covers only the initial fixed term, continues into a periodic tenancy, and ends on a specific date or event. This is where many landlords get caught out. If the document is vague on duration, the answer to “does this guarantee still apply?” after a renewal or change is probably “not as clearly as you’d like.”
Treat renewals and significant changes as a trigger to revisit the guarantee.
Any time the tenancy is renewed or materially varied, ask whether the guarantee needs to be confirmed or reissued. It’s a small administrative step that costs nothing at the time and can matter a great deal later.
A simple process for getting it right
Getting guarantors properly set up doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to follow a consistent order. Tell the tenant early that a guarantor is required and why. Collect the guarantor’s details — ID, address history, proof of income — and run basic affordability checks just as you would for the tenant. Then send the guarantor a pack containing the tenancy agreement, the guarantee deed, and a plain-language summary of what they’re agreeing to. Give them time to read it; don’t rush the signature on the same day as everything else. Execute the deed correctly, with proper witnessing, and then file everything — scanned and stored — alongside the rest of your tenancy documents.
That process is straightforward enough that it shouldn’t add much friction to the start of a tenancy. And it’s the difference between a guarantee you can actually rely on and one that looks reassuring right up until the moment you need it.
What enforcement looks like if things go wrong
If rent goes unpaid and the guarantor won’t cover it voluntarily, your only option is to go to court. That’s why both the guarantor’s financial position and the quality of your paperwork matter so much. A guarantee is only useful if it’s enforceable and if the person behind it has the means to honour it. A signed document from someone with no income and no assets is better than nothing, but not by much.
A guarantor is a safety net, not a substitute for good systems
The most important thing to understand about guarantors is what they are and aren’t. They reduce financial risk; they don’t remove it. They work best when the rest of your tenancy management is already solid. A current rent ledger, a calm and consistent approach to arrears, tidy records, and a clear sense of what you’d do if things started going wrong. A guarantor in place with those systems around it is a genuinely useful backstop. A guarantor in place as a substitute for those systems is a false sense of security that will let you down at the worst possible moment.
