Guarantor Rules for Landlords in England Under the Tenant Fees Act

Can You Still Require a Guarantor?

Yes. Nothing in the Tenant Fees Act 2019 or the Renters' Rights Act 2025 prohibits a landlord from asking a tenant to provide a guarantor as a condition of the tenancy. Guarantors remain one of the primary risk-management tools available to self-managing landlords — especially now that advance rent is capped at one month's rent, or 28 days' rent where rent is paid more frequently than monthly, and blanket benefit refusals are banned.

The rules are about how you apply the requirement, not whether you can impose it.

The Consistency Requirement

You can require a guarantor, but the requirement must be applied consistently across all applicants who fall below your objective affordability threshold. If your standard is a gross income of at least 2.5× the monthly rent, then every applicant — employed, self-employed, or on benefits — who falls below that threshold gets the same guarantor request.

What you cannot do: require a guarantor only from benefit claimants, only from applicants with children, or only from applicants of a particular nationality. Targeting the guarantor requirement at a protected group turns a lawful credit-risk measure into unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and the Renters' Rights Act 2025.

Who Pays for Guarantor Referencing?

The landlord. Under the Tenant Fees Act, you cannot charge the tenant or the guarantor for the cost of a credit check, reference, or affordability assessment. Guarantor referencing fees are a prohibited payment — the same as tenant referencing fees.

If you use a third-party referencing service that charges per guarantor check, that cost sits on your side of the ledger. You cannot pass it through as an "administration fee" or a "guarantor processing charge."

The International Student Problem

International students are the applicant category where the guarantor rules create the most friction. A postgraduate arriving from overseas for a one-year master's programme typically has no UK credit history, no UK-based landlord reference, and no UK-based guarantor. Before May 2026, landlords managed this by collecting six or twelve months' rent in advance. That option is gone — the cap is one month.

Your remaining options:

Institutional guarantor schemes. Services such as Housing Hand, Guarantid, and university-backed guarantee schemes act as the guarantor in exchange for a premium paid by the tenant. A tenant may choose and pay for a professional guarantor service, but you cannot require the tenant to enter into or pay for that third-party service as a condition of the tenancy. You can suggest these services and accept them as meeting your guarantor requirement.

University accommodation offices. Many universities operate a guarantor or deposit scheme for international students, or provide landlords with a financial undertaking. Check with the university's accommodation office — some guarantee schemes cover private lets within a certain distance of campus.

Open-banking affordability evidence. Where an applicant has a UK bank account (even a newly opened one), open-banking checks can verify income deposits, spending patterns, and account stability. This is not a replacement for a guarantor, but it gives you documented evidence of financial capacity that strengthens a tenancy decision if challenged.

Parent or family guarantor abroad. You can accept an overseas-based guarantor, but enforcement of a guarantee against a person outside England is practically difficult. If you go this route, take legal advice on the guarantor deed wording — a standard UK guarantee agreement may not be enforceable in the guarantor's home jurisdiction.

What About a Guarantor for a Benefit Claimant?

If an applicant receives Universal Credit and the housing element covers most or all of the rent, requiring a guarantor is lawful only if your affordability criteria consistently require one from anyone at that income level. A landlord who waives the guarantor requirement for an employed applicant earning the same amount but insists on one for the benefit claimant is applying the criterion inconsistently — and that is a discrimination risk.

The safe approach: set a single affordability threshold, apply it to every applicant's total verifiable income (including all benefits), and require a guarantor from everyone who falls below it. If the benefit claimant's total income — wages plus housing element plus any other payments — exceeds your threshold, they do not need a guarantor.

Recording Your Guarantor Decisions

For each applicant where a guarantor is requested, note:

• The affordability threshold you applied
• The applicant's verified income and how it compared to the threshold
• Whether the same threshold triggered a guarantor request for other applicants in the same letting round

This record is your evidence that the guarantor requirement was objective and consistent. It goes in the same file as your applicant selection matrix and viewing notes.

The Advertising and Choosing Tenants in England guide includes an Applicant Selection Matrix that maps income sources (including benefits) against the affordability threshold and documents guarantor decisions alongside every other selection criterion.

See more England guides →