Information for Parents and Guarantors

What a guarantor is committing to

A guarantor agreement is a promise to a landlord that if the tenant does not pay what they owe under the tenancy, you will. It usually covers rent, and often covers damage and other sums due under the agreement. It normally lasts as long as the tenancy does — and GOV.UK states that since 1 May 2026 a new private tenancy in England has no fixed end date, so "as long as the tenancy" is a longer sentence than it used to be. Ask in writing when your liability ends. Checked 28 July 2026; this is general information rather than legal advice.

On a student house let to a group on one joint tenancy, scope is everything. Read the agreement for the answer to one question: does this guarantee cover my own student's share, or the whole household? If the document is not clear, ask for it to be made clear in writing before anyone signs.

One further point is worth knowing. GOV.UK's Tenant Fees Act guidance notes that where a guarantor agreement was entered into before 1 May 2026, the terms of that agreement may be affected by the tenancy reforms in the Renters' Rights Act — so an older guarantee may not now mean what it said. A students' union adviser, Citizens Advice or a solicitor can read your specific document; nothing on this page is a substitute for that.

What changed for student tenancies on 1 May 2026

GOV.UK states that from 1 May 2026 the Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished assured shorthold tenancies in England. Most existing tenancies became assured periodic tenancies automatically, and any new private tenancy agreed on or after that date is an assured periodic tenancy that runs on a rolling weekly or monthly basis with no end date. A tenant ends it by giving two months' notice in writing, timed to the rent due date or the day before, and keeps paying rent through the notice period. Checked 28 July 2026.

For a student house that has three practical consequences. First, "signed up for the year" is no longer how the law works, so ask the landlord what they expect and get it in writing. Second, GOV.UK's landlord guidance describes a possession ground for student houses in multiple occupation, covering full-time students on a joint contract in an HMO, which a landlord can only use if notice was given at the start of the tenancy — it does not apply to purpose-built student accommodation. Third, a landlord cannot ask for, encourage or accept any payment of rent before the agreement is signed, and can then request a maximum of one month's rent in advance.

One more change is worth a parent's attention because it affects the search itself: GOV.UK states a landlord must include a specific price in any written advertisement or offer, and cannot accept or encourage offers above the advertised rent. If anyone in Lancaster suggests your group could secure a house by offering over the asking rent, that is not a negotiation tactic — it is prohibited.

All of the above is general information taken from GOV.UK on 28 July 2026, not legal advice, and it describes the law rather than any particular landlord's terms. Confirm the terms of your own contract, and take independent advice on your own document before you sign it.

How the deposit is protected, and what it can legally be

GOV.UK states that a landlord or letting agent must put a tenant's deposit into a government-approved scheme within 30 days of receiving it, and must return it within 10 days of both sides agreeing how much comes back. In England there are three approved schemes: the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, the Deposit Protection Service and MyDeposits. Bayt protects every tenant deposit through the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), and the scheme details are supplied as part of the tenancy paperwork. Checked 28 July 2026. Ask which scheme is being used, then confirm the deposit actually appears in it once it has been paid, rather than taking the paperwork on trust.

The amount is capped too. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, GOV.UK states a tenancy deposit cannot exceed five weeks' rent where the total annual rent is under £50,000, or six weeks' rent where it is between £50,000 and £100,000. A holding deposit — the payment that reserves a property while referencing happens — is capped at one week's rent. Those are legal ceilings rather than any particular landlord's figure, so ask for the actual deposit amount in writing, in weeks of rent, before anyone commits.

Deposit protection matters most at the end of the year, not the start. The point of a government-approved scheme is that if you and the landlord disagree about deductions, an independent third party can decide rather than the landlord simply keeping the money, and the scheme provides that dispute resolution service free. Ask the landlord how the scheme's dispute process works for them, and ask your student to photograph the property and its inventory on the day they move in.

What a landlord or agent can legally charge

This is the section worth reading twice if you are the one paying. GOV.UK's Tenant Fees Act 2019 guidance sets out a closed list of payments a landlord or agent in England may charge a tenant. Anything outside that list — an administration fee, a referencing fee, a credit-check fee, an inventory fee, a renewal fee, a "guarantor processing" fee — is a prohibited payment. If a Lancaster landlord asks your family for one, that alone tells you what you need to know. Checked 28 July 2026; general information, not legal advice.

What bills included actually covers

Bayt lets its Lancaster student homes bills included: gas, electricity, water and high-speed fibre broadband or Wi-Fi, with TV licence support and free laundry access at the properties that provide them. Bayt's published homes are priced from £125 to £139 per person per week for a room in a shared house, and £229 per week for the self-contained North Road studio, taken from Bayt's own live property records on 28 July 2026. Six of the fourteen published listings carried an individual price on that date — three shared houses, the studio and two individually let rooms; the other eight were marked under offer and are not priced individually.

For a parent the value of a bills-included rent is not the convenience, it is the comparability. One figure per person per week can be compared honestly against another provider's quote once you have added their expected energy, water and broadband. It also removes the January energy spike from a household budget you may end up underwriting, and it removes the argument about who has not paid their share of the gas bill — which is a real cause of student house breakdowns, not a trivial one.

What it does not cover is personal spending: food, mobile contracts, travel, course materials and subscriptions all sit outside the household package and need their own line in the budget. Ask for the package for the specific property in writing before signing, and ask whether any fair-use limit applies.

Checking the landlord, not just the house

Bayt holds three separate commitments to three separate bodies — Lancaster University Homes approval, NRLA membership and deposit protection through the Tenancy Deposit Scheme — plus HMO licensing from Lancaster City Council where a property needs it. Families are usually shown all of them as a single badge row, which flattens four different things into one impression. Every one of them can be verified independently, which is the point of them: ask the landlord, then confirm the answer somewhere other than the landlord's own website.

Lancaster University Homes is wholly owned and administered by Lancaster University, which states that only accommodation accredited with Lancaster University Homes is approved by Lancaster University, the University of Cumbria and Lancaster City Council. Before approving membership the university inspects all properties registered with the scheme and checks records such as student complaints for compliance, and membership can be refused or revoked. That is a materially stronger thing than a logo: one accreditation covering both universities and the council. Source: Lancaster University Homes Standard, checked 28 July 2026. Ask whether the specific house is covered rather than assuming the badge covers everything.

NRLA membership is a different thing again. The National Residential Landlords Association is the largest membership body for private residential landlords in England and Wales, with more than 100,000 members. It publishes a Code of Practice that members are required to observe, and members agree to submit to investigation if a breach is alleged. It is a professional-standards signal rather than a property inspection, and it is worth reading as exactly that: a landlord who has chosen to be held to a published code, alongside — not instead of — the legal duties every landlord has. Source: nrla.org.uk, checked 28 July 2026.

Council Tax: who is exempt, and who does the paperwork

GOV.UK states that households where everyone is a full-time student do not have to pay Council Tax, and that for most students a full-time course means one lasting at least a year and involving at least 21 hours of study a week. If a bill arrives anyway, the household applies for the exemption. Where one person in the house is not a full-time student, the household is not exempt, though a discount may apply. Checked 28 July 2026.

Locally, Lancaster City Council states that a student becomes liable for Council Tax from the start date of their tenancy agreement, and that the exemption is applied to the account once the council has proof of studies for the duration of the course. In practice that means the paperwork sits with the tenant: your student obtains a council tax certificate or equivalent proof from their university and gives it to the council. Diarise it for the first fortnight of the tenancy rather than the first bill, and ask your landlord whether they notify the council of tenancy start and end dates or whether that is entirely down to the household.

Two traps are worth flagging to a student. A tenancy that starts in July while the student is not yet enrolled, or one that runs past graduation, can create a liable period at each end. And a mixed household — a graduate, a working partner, a placement year that is not full-time study — changes the position for everyone. If any of that applies, contact the council early rather than after a bill arrives.

What to ask to see before anyone signs

Ask for these nine documents and figures together, in one message, rather than one at a time over three weeks. A landlord who can produce them quickly is telling you something useful about how the year will go, and a landlord who cannot is telling you something too. Send the request before your student is emotionally committed to a specific house, because that is the point at which a family still has room to walk away.

• The tenancy agreement and the separate guarantor agreement, in full.
• The weekly rent per person, the rent payment dates, and what the landlord expects about the length of the let now that GOV.UK states tenancies have no fixed end date.
• What the bills-included package covers for that specific property, in writing, and any fair-use limit.
• The deposit amount in weeks of rent, which protection scheme is used, and when the prescribed information is issued.
• Whether a holding deposit is being asked for, and on what conditions it would not be returned.
• The current gas safety record and the electrical installation condition report.
• The HMO licence, if the property needs one.
• The energy performance certificate.
• How repairs are reported, and what happens outside office hours.

Visiting, or helping without visiting

Parents are welcome at viewings and it is worth going if you can, because a survey-eye look at a house is a skill most eighteen-year-olds have not needed yet. Check for damp behind furniture on external walls and in bathroom corners, turn the radiators on in the bedroom your child would take, run the hot taps, and check window locks and alarms.

If you cannot travel, ask for a video walkthrough of the actual room and the shared spaces rather than a marketing film, and ask your questions live on a call. Bayt's Lancaster office at 42 North Road is appointment-only, so arrange a time in advance rather than arriving.

The booking sequence at Bayt is deliberately short: send the property, the group size, the academic year and preferred times by WhatsApp, phone or email; the team arranges an in-person or video viewing; questions about bills, deposit, tenancy and repairs are answered before anything is signed. Nobody should be asked to pay rent before the agreement is signed — GOV.UK is explicit that a landlord cannot request, encourage or accept that.

Safety, repairs and the number to call

The part families ask least about is the part that decides the year. Bayt operates two repair routes. Urgent and unsafe problems — a major leak, hazardous electrics, loss of heating in cold weather, or a security issue — go to the phone line on 01524 888 151, which reaches the same Lancaster team that handles viewings and tenancies rather than a national call centre. Routine repairs are logged through a repair ticket with photographs where it is safe to take them. If you smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999 from a nearby property, not from inside the house.

It is worth agreeing with your student in advance that they will report problems early rather than living with them, because small issues that go unreported become deposit conversations at the end of the tenancy. A damp patch photographed in November is a repair; the same patch discovered in June is an argument.

On safety, the things to confirm at the viewing are practical rather than technical: smoke alarms fitted on every storey, a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fuel-burning appliance, a current gas safety record, an electrical installation condition report, and solid locks on external doors and ground-floor windows. Where a house is a licensable HMO, the council's licence conditions cover fire safety, amenities and room sizes, and GOV.UK states that renting out an unlicensed licensable HMO can attract an unlimited fine — which is a reasonable thing to ask a landlord about directly.