I am a really unpopular dad tonight

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My oldest daughter just came to me with the lease agreement for a townhouse she is planning to rent with 2 other kids as they go off to college next fall. She is almost 20 and will be a Junior, but this is her first venture away from home (all the way to the other side of the state).

The lease agreement states that they want all parents to sign and provide personal information (such as Social Security numbers). The parents signing agree to pay for everything and anything before the townhouse rental place would pursue these legal adults who are the actual tenants. There was no limitations for my liability in there at all.

I told her she better start looking for another place to rent because I was not signing up for that kind of liability.

2

I hope she’s not too angry, but I think you made the right decision there. It’s about time for her to take on that kind of responsibility.

3

It’s odd that they want info for the parents. If the kids are over 18, whatever they do is their own responsibility. I’m 21 and I definitely don’t expect my parents to pay if I screw up.
You did the right thing.

4

They do that in Western? Damn.

Good for you, though. Was there much pouting and whining? I’d guess not.

5

Mind you, I don’t know jack-s*** about these kinds of things, but…

That sounds really, really shady to me. ASAKMOTSD, I think you made the right decision. If they just wanted signatures and contact info from the parents (in case of problems), or even an agreement to cover standard charges (such as for property damage) if the kid can’t pay it, that would seem reasonable (hell, responsible) for the landowner to require. But social security number? Open-ended acceptance of liability? This sounds more like a con-man trying to get you to sign a blank check, if you ask me.

6

That is of course, absurd, and you did the right thing. Hopefully you explained it to her and she can understand why that is a landlord she probably doesn’t want anyway.

7

It’s not reasonable to require confirmation from a third party in case the leasee can’t pay it. At 20, you aren’t a kid anymore if you enter into a lease. You are a rent-paying adult, and you assume all the liability for any damage. You and no one else, not your employer, not your parents, not your boyfriend or girlfriend. You.

I think you did the right thing. Asking for a secondary leasee is only applicable if you need someone to co-sign for you because you don’t have sufficient credit to fulfill the obligations of the property, and even then, most places would just increase the deposit amount to compensate for the lack of credit history.
Sounds very shady to me.
-foxy

8

As a former student landlord, in a university town, with over 15 yrs experience I’m here to tell you that you did the right thing.

I always asked for/demanded contact information for their parents but never a social insurance number etc. The parents phone number is great thing to have should things take a turn during the rental. Just knowing you have the ability to inform their parents of untoward activities keeps lots of kids from crossing lines.

This is unreasonable and unnecessary no matter the housing market.

Sorry you’re so unpopular, but it might pass when the other parents also decline this invitation to liability.

9

Does you kid’s university have an office that handles off-campus housing? We had a “Tenent Union” where I went to school, they knew the area and the would do things like review leases. They also kept records of landlord complaint. Maybe something like that would help you guys work this out long distance.

10

Your daughter may be disappointed but can perhaps take some comfort from the knowledge that she doesn’t have a naive fool for a father.

11

I work in a property management office in a university town (two universities, and one college, actually) and so have both been a student tenant and experienced the landlord’s perspective.

It is quite common that 19-year-olds who have never rented before and who are away from home for the first time are nightmare tenants. They can be noisy, inconsiderate, partiers, late with rent, and poor at taking care of property. This is by no means the rule, but it happens a lot. An awful lot.

Your daughter may be a quiet, studious and responsible girl, but her roommates may not be.

If your daughter wanted to rent a townhouse through my office, with no job and no previous landlord references, darn tootin’ we’d be getting each student tenant’s parent on the tenancy agreement along with their son or daughter. And in order to do that, I am going to treat the parent as if he or she were applying to rent with us. So I will ask the parent to fill out an application form, and I will confirm employment and do a credit check on the parent. In order to do this, I will want the parent’s name, date of birth, social insurance number, and home address.

Hm. That’s a bit odd, but landlord/tenant law varies from province to province, and I imagine, from state to state. If I can remember the legalese, tenants in BC (Canada) are “jointly and severally liable”. I can’t speak to wherever you are, but we would not pursue the adults first, but rather the student tenants, as obviously, they are the actual occupants who caused any hypothetical problems. We’d approach the parents to help resolve issues only if the student tenants were not responsive.

I would suggest that students rent apartments that are not on fixed-term leases (you can tell them over and over again about fixed-terms, lease breaks, and consequences of such, but come April, all memory magically has vanished…). Students need economical housing that does not obligate them to stay for a fixed-term, and also does not obligate them to take care of an expensive home and garden. (When I was a university student, paying a water bill and mowing a lawn would have been astounding concepts to me.)

(When I speak of irresponsible students, I do recall very well that I was also one. Clueless, that was me.)

12

Perhaps the security deposit is regulated, as it is in BC. Here we cannot legally take more than one-half-month’s rent as a security deposit. (And another half-month-rent as a pet damage deposit now, which is considered a seperate deposit.)

With no references or employment, we definitely look for a parent or guardian to co-sign the tenancy agreement as a guarantor.

13

SePARate. Ack!

14

I don’t doubt that this is true in your office - but every single legal bone in my body just cried out in unison. The Halls of Justice are littered with people who unnecessarily signed contracts adverse to their best interests simply because of assurances (or common sense understandings) just like this.

When I was in college, I remember having to fork over a hefty deposit + the last month’s rent just because there wasn’t a lot of guarantee that I wouldn’t skip out on the rent, be unable to pay, or kick through all the walls. But they covered that with the gigantic deposit, and my parents were never involved.

15

I recall a speech given to me by my father when I was a college student. It contained the now family famous line, “Son, my insurance agent has correctly pointed out to me that while your pockets are very shallow, mine are very deep. You’re off the insurance.” A brilliant man and a wonderful orator my father is. You did the right thing.

16

Well, obviously this has something to do with supply & demand. If there were a large supply of places to rent, then they would be empty because no one would rent with them. That said, when I was looking for apartments to rent, the first when I was 18 and in high school, all asked for co-signers on the lease that pretty much opened them up to all the same responsibilities. I found 1 apartment complex that was run out of an office in another state and was not required to get a co-signer…And boy, when I left, it was in the middle of the night after a bunch of damage was done. My friends trashed the place.

While going after me would have been the legal thing to do, the costs associated with even a small claims court filing did not outweigh the damage done. The lease that place is asking you to sign is basically saying “Hey, we know we could go to court to press a case against 3 different young adults (who will point the fingers at each other, most likely), but we think that going to the parents is just easier.”

I wouldn’t sign it, but I can certainly understand it.

-Tcat

17

I didn’t think it was that unusual. After moving out at 18 to go to university they didn’t require my parents details, and neither did my next place. However after leaving university my next place needed someone to sign as ‘guarentor’ as I was moving to a new town and didn’t have a job yet.

18

Count me in the group that says you did the right thing. My first year in college I shared a house with a group of guys and some were quite destructive. I mean one guy punched holes in the wall and stuff. As you said, they are adults, let them take their own responsibility.

19

In my college town, college kids pretty much had to have a parent co-sign (along with first and last months rent, plus a deposit). The rental market was tight enough (less than one percent vacancy, with sky high rents no young person could afford on their own- it was made Manhattan look easy) that nobody would dream of taking a chance on someone without a rental history and no job.

Think about it, would you trust your home to a kid you don’t know from Adam and who likely doesn’t care about the few things you can do to them if they mess up your stuff? Of course not. You’d want someone with a track record of responsibility. Allowing a third party to take that responsibility is actually kind of a favor to these kids.

Anyway, no clue what your area is like, but in mine a college kid would be stuck either with an illegal sub-lease or nothing if they could not get a co-signer. Your child’s college community housing office should know the norms for your area.

20

I agree w/ the OP’s choice. But a few months back I started a thread in GQ about insurance companies requiring that my teen drivers be included under my umbrella policy.
As I understood it, they were covered because the insurance industry required that they be covered. IMO, that practice meant that my purchasing an umbrella created a liability resulting from their action that otherwise would not have existed. Odd that my purchase of insurance, intended to benefit me and my wife, is twisted to benefit the potential victims of my childrens’ negligence.