Clear information on what a rent guarantor is and means:

The first Unite Foundation audit of university websites was undertaken in 2022 and showed just 36% of sites had clear student-facing information on what a rent guarantor was and the role’s importance for accommodation. By 2024 this picture had improved to 45% of sites.

The 2025 audit took place in July across 183 institutional websites searching for ‘guarantor’, reviewing material to determine if there was a clear definition and connection to housing. We’re pleased to see another increase – this time to 60% of sites having suitable coverage – which enables us to say the majority of HE providers do provide suitable information, just!

Sample Language – What is a rent guarantor?

Most landlords, including private accommodation providers that rent properties to students, require a third person to act as a ‘guarantor’ before a tenancy agreement can be completed.

A guarantor is a third party, for example a family member, who agrees to pay the rent if for any reason you as the tenant cannot. In some cases a guarantor is also liable for other costs that might be incurred, for example any damage to the property that happened whilst you were living there. Agreeing to be a guarantor is a binding legal commitment, and landlords can take legal action against your guarantor if the rent, or other costs, are not paid.

Check if you need a guarantor for student housing that you are interested in and be sure to get this in place before you start.

Who can act as a rent guarantor?

A person acting as a guarantor would normally have the following credentials:

• UK individual citizen – to enable a landlord to pursue action through the UK court system if required

• Solvent – credit checks may be taken to assess ability to meet any potential liability

We’ll be writing to the remaining universities below shortly to request this sample copy be added to their websites so that all students – but particularly care experienced and estranged students – have the chance to know what a rent guarantor is and why they can be important to a HomeAtUniversity.

Whilst the principal purpose of the audit was the availability of clear guarantor information, light touch analysis offered up some additional questions and learning:

+ as each UK HEI is independent there was little to no consistency across websites on where the relevant information – if present – was located. Students from a background of care or estrangement routinely feedback on how difficult researching different universities is and they, by necessity, are frequently looking for information support alongside academic programmes. Become’s Propel website works hard to give an overview of support in a consistent accessible format and we’ll be encouraging an expansion of the factors reflected there to include elements of the #HomeAtUniversity Blueprint.

+ Many universities clearly indicate that they do not require a guarantor for first-year students in halls; with some specifying care experienced or estranged students as being exemptions to the rule for those that do.  This is very welcome explicit content that acknowledges specific barriers faced by this student population, but with a curious and disappointing silence on forward years potentially in private accommodation.

+ There was an indication perhaps of silo services information to be expected in large institutions where, for example, some material was present on pages targeting international students but not reflected on dedicated care experience pages (or indeed vice versa when there is a clear overlap of need).  Likewise, relevant information and services might sometimes appear on dedicated pages but not be repeated on the accommodation pages. 

+ Just under half  – 52 of 183 websites audited- DID clearly explain what a guarantor was but didn’t recognise it as a potential access barrier and therefore had no connected content on services or assistance for students.   There’s a clear role for dedicated staff members to intervene here to bridge that inclusion gap as the NNECL Quality Mark, Care Leaver Covenant and UF Blueprint, plus all academic research in this space, (and common sense) captures that a rent guarantor requirement can be a barrier for a young person with no access to suitable adults. 

+  38% of sites (70 of 183) DID signpost to a service of some kind in relation to rent guarantors.  It’s interesting to note that nearly 10 of these were to general society/non-university services like Shelter or Citizen’s Advice.  There’s an implication here perhaps of the demand pressures for student support teams but signposting outwards is likely to result in a gap from the HEI services that otherwise act as an inclusion pull.

+ 15 HEI indicated an in-house service with varying degrees of detail in the pubic domain which we’ve summarised in the blueprint ‘room’ and will update over time. 

+ 32% of sites (59 of 183) did reference a commercial provider of which, at the time of audit, there were 3 main operators – Housing Hand, Rent Guarantor, and Your Guarantor (which has now closed down). The continuing commercial providers both offer specific arrangements with universities that can enable no-fee access for identified students (eg care experienced and or estranged) and very effectively remove the rent guarantor barrier.

+ Those that do have a commercial relationship affording a cost-free service for relevant students would be well served to make this much more explicit. Current content is often non-specific about fees and usually offers up an email address for more information; moving the burden back to students least equipped to navigate at short notice, and who are rarely confident of response or positive outcome.

During 2025, and indeed much of 2024, the future legislative environment around student housing and rent guarantors was uncertain as the Renters Rights Bill made its progress through parliament. Now that the Bill has passed into law, what impact can be expected for care experienced and estranged students?

Guarantor Amendment

The Renters Reform Coalition, of which both NUS and Shelter are members, had sought an amendment to the Bill that would restrict the circumstances in which a landlord could request a rent guarantor. for those able to demonstrate financial ability to meet rent values. Research by Shelter across the entire private sector identified that:

* 1.85 million renters were asked to provide a guarantor in the 5 previous years
* 25% of landlords had refused to let a home to someone without a guarantor
* the profile of guarantor requests suggested discriminatory practice with disabled, black and aspiring renters on benefits being disproportionately affected

Their research also showed that the perception of risk around rent default was not based in fact:

* rent arrears were the least likely cause of problem debt

* only 2% of private rented tenants were in arrears

* only 3% of landlords had pursued a guarantor for rent arears

Many will identify familiar themes within this research that translate to the circumstance for care experienced and estranged students.

Whilst the guarantor specific proposed amendment was not accepted, the minister went on record committing to monitoring the impact of the bill, (now Act) on discriminatory requests for guarantors.

Many commentators – and indeed commercial providers of guarantor services – have noted an unintended consequence of the Act may actually be a surge in guarantor requests to offset the heavy restriction of advance rent payments. Subscribers to Wonkhe should read Jim Dickinson’s cogent piece for SU’s on this topic (31/10/25).

Demise of the assured shorthold tenancy

The significant change in private housing tenancies that will be triggered by the Act’s implementation from May 2026 is outside of the focus for Unite Foundation – but very well covered by the HEPI blog from Martin Blakey late of Unipol.

Points to note however that relevant to care experienced and estranged students are potentially:

* a greater ability to tailor tenancy length to individual need rather than be at the mercy of group tenancies

* an inability to circumvent rent guarantor requirement by paying significant sums in advance (if they had access to such resource)

* a shrinking or short-term pause in university provided schemes as institutions consider how to adapt services to rolling tenancies rather than AST defined periods

* improved relative accessibility of university halls or commercial PBSA halls provision given it’s exemption from the Act’s key provisions

Disclaimer : the Unite Foundation does not promote or recommend any specific provider of commercial rent guarantor services.

Commercial providers of rent guarantor products exist to service both the mainstream and student renter markets. In broad terms a user would pay a fee – usually based on a percentage of rent value – for the company to stand in the role of guarantor for participating landlords. Both the main businesses in the UK – Housing Hand and Rent Guarantor – have developed different approaches specifically for working in partnership with universities with opportunity within for student customer fees to be absorbed – ie a fee-free service that achieves the desired result; removal of the rent guarantor barrier.

For several institutions this method of addressing student need is attractive as has the advantage of being scalable with a comparatively low burden on staff resource. Both companies have a demonstrable track record of working with UK universities though each has quite distinct administrative and pricing models. For care-experienced and estranged student support it is key to check the detail of arrangements to ensure that there is no requirement for a ‘co-signer’ (oft a feature of products targeted principally at international students).

The following excerpts are from student case studies shared during 2023 media work by Unite Foundation on the topic of rent guarantors and the range of barriers presented to students.

Sam

I was kicked out of home at the age of nineteen… there have been times where I’ve been homeless or facing it and the guarantor issue has been a major cause of stress and upset. I was never told anything about having to find a rent guarantor and the process of moving into a place. I’ve had to learn it all on my own.

It makes me feel like I will always be treated differently to those with family support networks, because the issue comes up time and time again.

It’s embarrassing to have to ask friends or their parents and sometimes it leads to awkward questions like why my family aren’t around. I’m endlessly grateful for the support of good friends and partners’ parents, but it shouldn’t have to be this way.

I want universities to recognise that care experienced and estranged students not having access to a rent guarantor is a systemic issue. Universities should acknowledge, as part of their corporate parenting responsibilities, that this is a barrier that they should aim to get rid of.

In an ideal world, care experienced and estranged students would be entirely exempt from requiring a guarantor. I believe that’s the only way we would receive true equity with those who have family support networks behind them. We deserve security. I honestly think most corporate parents and unis don’t realise how prevalent this issue is, so an education campaign is probably the first step in adjusting the system in our favour.

Finally, it’s not wrong to ask for help from anyone so please don’t feel guilty or ashamed about it! We have been dealt a different set of cards in life – don’t feel bad that you need extra support.

Alice

I did not know that they (guarantors) were required for university or student housing.

I emailed the university to see if they had any information on either accommodation which I could access without a rent guarantor or if they had a system to help me. I tried to contact the university care leaver team for almost two months to no avail. By the end, I had to contact the accommodation company myself and push for me to be allowed to access this accommodation, and they were very apprehensive. In my contract it stated that they can withdraw my accommodation at any time due to me not having the security of a guarantor.

I would tell other students in my position to fight for your case and don’t allow people to put you on the back burner. Push for change. At the end of the day, it is discrimination to not allow you to have accommodation just because you are care experienced or estranged. Keep in constant contact with companies and the university, push for answers, follow up emails and phone calls every couple of days so you can be certain that people have seen them. Be persistent.

Courtney

I was homeless when I applied for university and was using it as a way to pull myself out of the situation after trying everything else, so finding out that despite managing to get into university, I may not be able to attend because I couldn’t find a guarantor was very disheartening and it was hard to fight feelings of despair.

I resolved the guarantor issue for myself in the end because I was informed that the student housing provider I was using did not do thorough checks on guarantors, so I put a willing friends information in and just made sure that my rent was always paid on time, so that the guarantors information would never be needed or looked into. I felt anxious about the possibility of being made homeless again if the housing provider looked into my guarantor’s information.

I would advise other students in the same position I was in to look into whether the university they are applying to has any guarantor policies in place, and maybe call around different universities before you apply.

I would be very grateful if universities could help students that struggle with guarantors.