Parent cosign college student's apt lease

In My Humble Opinion
1

My daughter said she is moving out of the dorms after 2 years into an apartment. We said fine. She calls up and tells us she and 2 friends found one they like. She is coming home this weekend, and will bring info, including the lease which she asked if we would cosign.

I was hoping folks would chime in on this. ISTR (around these boards?) that this is a popular current trend. But when I was in college 25 years ago, my parents never cosigned any of my many leases.

I’m not terribly concerned about guaranteeing my daughter’s 3d of the rent, but I’ll have to see how the lease is written. Tenants are generally jointly and severally liable for all of the rent - and negligence/damage. Which I’m not sure I want to agree to. If nothing else, I don’t know if she will appreciate the full impact of the responsibility, if her parents are a “get out of jail free” card.

So I’d appreciate if you’d all chime in here and tell me why I’m an overly suspicious, no-good parent. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

I wouldn’t do it unless, at a minimum, I had met and approved of the two friends, and each of them was also going to have a parent co-sign. (The parents are more likely to be solvent enough to split any outrageous charges with you.) But I’m a suspicious lawyer like you, and maybe I’m out of touch.

3

[QUOTE=ENugent]
I wouldn’t do it unless, at a minimum, I had met and approved of the two friends, and each of them was also going to have a parent co-sign. (The parents are more likely to be solvent enough to split any outrageous charges with you.) But I’m a suspicious lawyer like you, and maybe I’m out of touch.
[/QUOTE]

We know both of the girls quite well. One was my daughter’s roomie these past 2 years, and the other she regularly goes to (UU) church with and lives just one town over from us. I don’t think any of the 3 of them even drink at all.

But still, I’m a big fan of folks entering into their own contracts, and being responsible for their own debts, etc. (And yes, I fully anticipate someone is going to post to the car door incident, if not to the blanket incident!) :wink:

Look at it from the landlord’s view. Normally, he has 3 tenants to go after in any problem. If he gets each to have a co-signer, he now has 6 folks potentially on the hook. I can understand why the landlord wants it - just not sure why it is in my best interest.

Also, tho we help our kid out with some costs associated with her education, she has sufficient funds in her own name to cover the year’s rent. So I don’t see why she should need a co-signer. I’d suggest offering instead, something like an extra month’s damage deposit. But IME, landlords/management companies tend to be pretty inflexible regarding their standard leases.

Like I said, we’ll look over the lease tomorrow.

It is wierd - one reason we were in favor of her getting an apartment was so she would gain the maturing experience. But MAN, it has surprised us how clueless she is about so many things - utilities, internet, laundry, and such. And OTOH she is focussing on stuff that really doesn’t matter - like the color of the carpet. Well, ya gotta learn sometime.

4

We cosigned for our daughter’s apartment while she was in college when she lived alone. Once she got roomies, we wouldn’t, even tho we had known one of the roomies since kindergarten. That saved us, as said roomie and her fiance (now ex-husband) were slobs who were fiscally irresponsible. Once our daughter got her own place again, we signed again - we had to, since we’re paying most of her rent. To her credit, she’s kept up with the rest of her bills and all that, so all we did was make things a little easier on her to get a nice apartment.

She graduates in May. She’ll be a responsible adult. We’ll be done with the cosigning. Yay.

5

related thread

The city where her school is located will of course be a big factor. When I was an undergrad (UIUC) parent cosigners were unheard of, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened at the more upscale complexes at the edge of town. As an unemployed grad student in New York City, I needed one to get the apartment I wanted, and it wasn’t even in Manhattan. As mentioned in linked thread, the school should be able to provide up-to-date info.

6

I had to have my parents cosign my first apartment because I couldn’t get one without a cosigner. Not enough credit history. After the first one, I was good, though.

7

My first step would be to check the landlord/tenant laws in the jurisdiction of the rental, then look for the limits of your/daughter’s liability. As a landlord, I can see both sides of this. If the local laws are specific and the lease is reasonable, I see no problems w/ you being the guarantor, assuming you have a reasonable amount of trust.

8

I have one kid at school in Chicago, and he couldn’t rent a self-storage space without a co-signer. I have one kid at a small town college in Missouri, and he and his roomies had no trouble at all with leasing an entire house without co-signers.

It may just be that where your daughter is, a co-signer for a student lease is SOP. Are the other roommates expected to have co-signers? Has she investigated whether other rentals where she is require co-signers?

And just for the sake of discussion, if she rents a place that didn’t require you to co-sign, and her roommates skipped out on the rent, what would you do?

9

I never had to have my parents co-sign my lease. This is my second apartment in college. Then again, I have a (part-time) job, so they might figure I have some source of income. My mom probably wouldn’t co-sign anything for me.

10

[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
So I’d appreciate if you’d all chime in here and tell me why I’m an overly suspicious, no-good parent. :stuck_out_tongue:
[/QUOTE]

Local laws may also factor in here. Although the state I grew up in allowed 18 year olds to sign leases without a co-signer, the state in which I went to college did NOT allow me to do that until 21. So the first year and a half I had an apartment my parents had to co-sign. I will point out that they never had to pay my rent, I did that on my own - it’s just that there wasn’t a choice.

Then again, I did NOT have roommates to complicate my situation. A lot depends on your offspring, the roommates, and so forth. I think you’re smart for hesitating and investigating further.

11

I’m a college student living in an apartment. My landlord never even suggested having parents cosign the lease.

However, my friend needed his parents to cosign his sublet in Manhattan. So, to echo many others, it’s probably area dependent.

12

I work in a property management office. We will ask parents/guardians to sign a tenancy agreement if a tenant is under 19 years of age, is a student with no job or previous rental history, is unemployed, or is employed, but young with no previous rental history.

In our tenancy agreements, each tenant is jointly and severally liable. If I were a parent, I would not want to sign along with my offspring unless I knew the roommates well and felt comfortable being responsible for their behaviour too.

As someone in property management, we definitely do like to get a co-signer. I don’t think it’s uncommon here–we have three universities and at least two colleges, along with smaller post-secondary school educational… uh, thingees. Colleges for foreign students, trades, etc. We have a large, semi-transient student population in Victoria, so I’d be surprised if we were the only property management company insisting on a guarantor.

Honestly, it’s amazing how clueless, irresponsible and destructive 18-20 year olds can be away from home. (I was one of them once, so I know…) Your son or daughter may be great kids, but sometimes with rowdy friends, new freedoms, and a six-pack of beer in them… Well, that’s how damage deposits get lost and rent monies get spent.

13

My dad co-signed my first lease, when I was 19 (30 years ago).

14

Is cosigning the lease different from guaranteeing it?

15

[QUOTE=Marley23]
Is cosigning the lease different from guaranteeing it?
[/QUOTE]

I’m not sure if they are the same in a strict legal sense, but for practical purposes, yes. If the lease holder fails to pay, the co-signer is responsible.

16

I’d say if you want to avoid this in the future, you should help your kids build a credit history. In a way that you can kind of monitor them. That should help, although if they’re under 21 in school in a college hellhole it’s likely all the bigger landlords in the area will ask for one…but maybe you could get out of it via pointing out their credit history. My parents insisted I start this around the age of 18, although they watched me like hawks till I was about 21 or 22.

I will say I never had to sign one of these and I was living in apartment from the age of 19 onwards (we only got dorm housing for 1 year at my undergrad). And this was in an upscale area of Montreal.

17

It was pretty normal where I lived, in a big college town in Oregon. My parents didn’t even think twice about it–but they were paying for my share of the rent, so of course they would cosign. Most of my friends also had their parents cosign. To be honest, if you have a good relationship with your daughter and you trust her, I’m a little surprised you would hesitate. But I have always had a very very close relationship with my parents (I was lucky enough to get awesome parents in the genetic draw) so it wasn’t even an issue. For the record, I live on my own now in a different country and pay all my bills myself, so I wasn’t exactly emotionally crippled by my parents financial support in college.

18

[QUOTE=Tanaqui]
To be honest, if you have a good relationship with your daughter and you trust her, I’m a little surprised you would hesitate.
[/QUOTE]

Because co-signing means he has to trust the roommates, and their parents, to not leave him holding the bag.

And, because of this, I wouldn’t do it.

19

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
I’m not sure if they are the same in a strict legal sense, but for practical purposes, yes. If the lease holder fails to pay, the co-signer is responsible.
[/QUOTE]

Ah. In that case, my parents co-signed the lease on the apartment I shared after college, which was no great surprise because I didn’t have much money. But they also guaranteed my current lease even though I have a job with a decent salary.

Like Dinsdale, my parents were surprised the broker wanted them to guarantee my lease, and weren’t keen on the idea. But my salary isn’t 40 times my monthly rent, and that was the rule. According to the broker, 40 times the annual rent is a normal rule in Manhattan these days.

Obviously, Dinsdale, my situation is different, because I live on my own. But if your daughter is in college, I think it might be hard to find a landlord who won’t ask you to cosign the lease.

20

[QUOTE=Q.N. Jones]
Because co-signing means he has to trust the roommates, and their parents, to not leave him holding the bag.

And, because of this, I wouldn’t do it.
[/QUOTE]

I agree. A surprisingly high percentage of “friends” becomes extremely lame when money is involved.