What is a guarantor for student accommodation?

A guarantor is a person who signs a legal agreement to pay your rent if you don’t. Depending on the agreement, they can also be asked to pay for damage or other money you owe under your contract.

If nobody you know meets the provider’s criteria, you still have options. Some universities don’t ask for a guarantor for accommodation they own. Some providers accept a guarantor who lives abroad, and some don’t ask for one if you pay the year’s rent in advance. Some universities and paid services can also act as guarantor for you. Check which options your provider accepts.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. The legal points cover England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland. If you or your guarantor are unsure about an agreement, speak to Citizens Advice, Shelter or your students’ union before signing.

What a guarantor agrees to

A guarantor agreement is a legal document. The landlord should come to you first about missed rent or damage, and can ask your guarantor if you can’t pay. In England, if neither of you pays, the landlord could go to court and get a county court judgment against either or both of you.

Having a guarantor does not remove your responsibility to pay the rent. The guarantor agreement sets out when the provider can ask your guarantor to pay.

The agreement should also say what the guarantor can be asked to pay, and it can be more than rent. Scottish Government guidance for private tenancies lists unpaid bills and the cost of repairing damage alongside rent arrears. Your guarantor should read your contract as well as their own agreement, because their financial responsibility depends on its terms.

Who can be your guarantor

There is no single set of guarantor criteria used by every provider. Published criteria differ on:

• Age. Providers set their own age requirements, commonly referring to 18 or 21. Check the exact wording, particularly if your proposed guarantor has just reached that age.
• Where they live. Some providers, including Yugo, Homes for Students, Prestige Student Living and CRM Students, ask for a guarantor based in the UK, and some ask for at least a year’s UK residence. iQ Student Accommodation and Student Roost accept guarantors who live overseas. Host usually asks for a UK guarantor but accepts overseas guarantors at some properties.
• Employment and home ownership. Yugo and Student Roost ask for a guarantor in full-time employment. Homes for Students accepts a homeowner or someone in full-time employment.
• Income and credit history. Providers may check your guarantor’s income and credit history. There is no standard income requirement. The University of Sussex’s private renting guidance says a guarantor typically needs an annual household income of 36 times your share of the monthly rent, and Housing Hand describes a common threshold of two to three times the yearly rent. On rent of £700 a month, 36 times is £25,200 a year. Ask the provider for its figure before your guarantor applies.
• Students. iQ does not accept a full-time student as a guarantor, and Student Roost does not accept a student.

Terms change, so ask the provider for its current criteria before you approach anyone.

What your guarantor will be asked for

A guarantor signs a written agreement and proves who they are. Homes for Students and CRM Students, for example, both ask for photo ID and proof of a UK address dated within the last three months.

In England, a landlord or letting agent cannot charge you or your guarantor for guarantor checks or for preparing the guarantor agreement. In Scotland, a landlord should not charge a fee for a credit check on you or your guarantor.

Shared flats and whose rent is covered

Before your guarantor signs, find out whether your contract is for your own room or a joint contract for the whole flat, because this can affect how much your guarantor could owe.

On a joint tenancy, the landlord could ask your guarantor to pay if another joint tenant doesn’t pay their rent, unless the guarantor agreement says otherwise. Suppose four of you share a flat at £700 a month each on a joint contract. If one flatmate stops paying for three months, your guarantor could be asked for that £2,100, even though your own rent is paid. With a separate contract for your room only, you can only be held responsible for the rent for your room.

If you are offered a joint contract, your guarantor can ask for their responsibility to be limited to your share of the rent. If the provider agrees, make sure that limit is written into the guarantor agreement.

How long the guarantee lasts

It lasts as long as the agreement says. A guarantor can ask to be bound for a set period, and if the landlord agrees, that should be written in.

A new tenancy agreement or a rent increase can mean the guarantor is no longer responsible, unless they agree to the change or the agreement says it carries on. When a guarantee ends, the guarantor is still responsible for anything left unpaid from the period it covered.

If you rebook for another year, ask whether your guarantor needs to sign again.

If you can’t get a guarantor

International students, care leavers, estranged students and students whose parents don’t meet a provider’s criteria all face this.

University-owned accommodation

Accommodation owned by your university may not need a guarantor at all. Newcastle University and Northumbria University, for example, both say they do not ask for a guarantor for accommodation they own. Rooms offered through partner providers can have different guarantor requirements, so check the terms for the residence before you apply.

An overseas guarantor

Not every provider needs your guarantor to live in the UK. iQ and Student Roost, for example, both say they accept a guarantor based overseas. Ask the provider before you assume you need someone in the UK.

Paying the rent in full

Several providers, including iQ, Yugo and CRM Students, ask for a guarantor only if you pay in instalments. If you pay the full rent in advance, they do not ask for one, although the payment may be due several weeks before you move in. Confirm the deadline for your booking with the provider.

Not every provider works this way. Student Roost asks every customer for a guarantor however they pay, and Vita Student says you don’t need a guarantor to book.

A full year’s rent is a large sum to pay at once, so read the provider’s payment terms first, including when the money is due and what happens if your plans change.

Rent in advance and the law in England

The Renters’ Rights Act changed the rules on rent in advance in England from 1 May 2026. For assured tenancies, which cover most private renting, a landlord cannot take rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. After signing, the most a landlord can usually ask for before the tenancy starts is one month’s rent where rent is paid monthly, or 28 days’ rent where it is not.

Private purpose-built student accommodation covered by the approved ANUK/Unipol code is treated differently. New agreements made on or after 1 May 2026 will usually be common law tenancies or licences rather than assured tenancies, so the limits on rent in advance do not apply to them. That is why a provider signed up to the code can still ask for a year’s rent upfront, while a private landlord letting a house or flat on an assured tenancy cannot.

If you signed before 1 May 2026, check your agreement type and payment terms with the provider, because different rules can apply to older agreements. These rules apply in England only.

A university guarantor scheme

Some universities act as guarantor for their own students. Each has its own eligibility rules and rent limit, and several restrict or exclude purpose-built student accommodation. These five were checked in October 2026.

University	Who can apply	Rent limit	Fee	Property conditions
UCL	Full-time students with no other UK-based guarantor. Open to overseas and EU students, and to UK students in exceptional circumstances such as care experience or estrangement	£350 a week or £1,517 a month per student	£50, charged once you are accepted	Within the M25. Purpose-built student accommodation on a contract of 12 months or less
Imperial College London	Full-time undergraduates after first year and full-time postgraduate research students. One-year Master’s students are not eligible	£315 a week or £1,365 a month	£72 including VAT	Private student residences are not covered
LSE	Continuing full-time students normally resident outside the UK, and estranged or care-experienced students. Home UK undergraduates with an LSE bursary are considered under a trial until December 2027	£1,000 a month per person	£50, waived for care-experienced and estranged students	Contract of a year or less, found through Student Pad or the University of London Housing Services database
University of Glasgow	Overseas and EU students, UK care leavers, UK students estranged from their family, and students with refugee or asylum seeker status	£225 a week or £900 a month, as published	No fee stated	Term dates only, for up to 12 months. A purpose-built student accommodation provider must be an approved supplier to the university
University of York	UK students who are care leavers, estranged from their parents or in exceptional circumstances	Ask the university	Ask the university	Private accommodation after first year

Checked October 2026. Scheme rules, limits and fees can change, so confirm them with the university before you apply.

UCL, Imperial and Glasgow say their guarantees cover rent only, and UCL’s covers your share for up to 12 months. You must apply to UCL before you sign your contract. Imperial has announced plans to widen eligibility, and Glasgow publishes both of the limits shown, so check the current rules with the university before applying.

If a university pays rent under its guarantee, you still owe that money. UCL, for example, invoices the student for anything it pays out. A provider also does not have to accept a university scheme, so check with both the provider and the university before you rely on one.

A paid guarantor service

A guarantor company acts as your guarantor in return for a fee. Providers differ on whether they accept one. Yugo, Homes for Students, Prestige Student Living and CRM Students each name Housing Hand as a service they work with, while iQ says it does not accept guarantor companies. Ask the provider before you pay.

The fee does not cover rent you fail to pay, so if the company pays your landlord, you still owe that money to the company. Housing Hand usually requires a co-signer, who can live outside the UK, although some university arrangements waive this requirement. The co-signer shares responsibility for repaying Housing Hand if it pays rent on your behalf, so they should read the agreement carefully before signing.

Housing Hand advertises a guarantor from £40 a month. Get a quote for your own booking and ask for the total cost over the whole contract. UCL’s scheme page lists Housing Hand, ukguarantor and The Student Guarantor as external providers, and says any arrangement with them is at your own risk.

In England, a landlord or agent can ask you for a guarantor but cannot require you to sign up to a paid service, and cannot make you use a particular company. If you are told that paying a named company is a condition of renting, get advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice before you pay. Shelter’s view is that guarantee schemes run by councils or charities are a better option than commercial companies where you can get one.

Care leavers and estranged students

If you are care experienced or estranged from your family, tell your university as early as you can. The help universities and colleges offer care experienced students may include no guarantor requirement, or the university acting as guarantor on your behalf.

Some universities cover or reduce the cost of a guarantor service:

• the University of Sheffield covers Housing Hand fees for care leavers and estranged students who receive its enhanced bursary
• the University of Exeter has funding to cover Housing Hand fees for 30 care experienced or estranged students, so places are limited
• the University of Nottingham covers Housing Hand charges for eligible care experienced and estranged students
• the University of York has a 50% discount with Housing Hand for its students who have no UK guarantor

UCAS also points estranged and care experienced students to All of Us, an online community supported by the Unite Foundation, and to the Unite Foundation’s scholarships. Your university’s student support team can tell you what applies where you study.

Scotland and Wales

In Scotland, purpose-built student accommodation rented from a private company, in a building with at least 30 bedrooms let only to students, comes with a common law tenancy with a fixed term. Read the tenancy agreement and guarantor agreement together to understand the commitments each of you is making. The Scottish Government guidance mentioned earlier is written for private residential tenancies, so use it as a guide to the questions to ask.

In Wales, purpose-built student accommodation managed by a private company should come with a standard occupation contract, which will probably be for a fixed term.

Different rules apply in Scotland and Wales, so check the payment terms and the rules for your type of accommodation before agreeing to pay rent in advance.

What to ask before anyone signs

• Do you need a guarantor if I pay in full, or only if I pay in instalments?
• Who do you accept as a guarantor, and can they live outside the UK?
• Is my contract for my room only, or a joint contract for the whole flat?
• Does the guarantor agreement cover rent only, and is it limited to my share?
• When does the guarantee end, and does it carry over if I rebook?
• Do you accept a university guarantor scheme or a guarantor company, and which ones?

You can compare rooms and contact providers through the Mystudenthalls.com search. Our guide to how to book student accommodation covers the rest of the booking process. If you are working out how to cover the rent, see our guides to the maintenance loan, how to budget as a student and how much student accommodation costs.

Sources

• Shelter England, Guarantors for private tenants
• GOV.UK: Fees you can charge as part of a tenancy and Rent payments and deposits
• Unipol, Students in private sector purpose-built accommodation
• Scotland: mygov.scot, Being a guarantor and Shelter Scotland, Your rights in student accommodation
• Wales: Shelter Cymru, Student accommodation
• Provider terms: iQ Student Accommodation, Yugo, Homes for Students, Prestige Student Living, CRM Students, Host, Student Roost and Vita Student
• University guarantor schemes: UCL, Imperial College London, LSE, University of Glasgow and University of York
• Support for care experienced and estranged students: UCAS, University of Sheffield, University of Exeter and University of Nottingham
• University-owned accommodation: Newcastle University and Northumbria University
• Guarantor income: University of Sussex and Housing Hand, who can be a rent guarantor
• Housing Hand: student guarantor service and co-signers

Figures and rules come from the named sources and can change, so check with the provider or university before you rely on them.