<p>I'm actually a student, but I thought you might be more knowledgeable about this specific issue than my peers would be. I hope you don't mind the intrusion.</p>
<p>Two friends and I are looking to get a house or apartment off campus for the first time. When asked for a reference from a previous landlord, we told the landlord that we had none and instead gave her our employers' contact information. She said that the references went through fine and that she would agree to rent us the house provided that a parent co-signs the lease.</p>
<p>However, one of the people on the lease is independent from his/her parents. Another's parents refuse to co-sign the lease. And I won't ask my dad to co-sign the lease because I know he would (reasonably) be really uncomfortable with that.</p>
<p>The problem is that none of our parents want to take responsibility for everyone else's offspring. And this is, of course, reasonable. And, from the landlord's perspective, she doesn't want to risk not being able to get her money. Which is also perfectly reasonable.</p>
<p>It seems to me that everyone here has taken a reasonable stance, and there isn't and easy solution that I can see. How do most people rent their first apartment if they are required to have a parent co-sign? Do they just get a single, one-person apartment?</p>
<p>The landlord has made it clear that she wants the lease to be with one person and a parent co-signer - we can't all have three separate leases.</p>
<p>As parents, have you dealt with this situation before? And do you have any advice?</p>
<p>Look for another place that will meet what you want regarding the lease. Not everyplace has the same requirements. My kids rented a number of apartments while in college that didn’t require a parent to co-sign. Sometimes they’ll waive the requirement and sometimes they’ll either take a larger deposit in lieu of the co-sign and sometimes they just want to see that you have enough savings or income to comfortably afford the place.</p>
<p>Forget about this place and look around for another.</p>
<p>I agree with the above - my father served as a guarantor for my first apartment, but my roommate’s mother also served as her guarantor and NYC is a tough market in general. But I know plenty of people who got apartments without their parents signing for them. Find another apartment that doesn’t have guarantor requirements.</p>
<p>I cosigned one lease for my son while he was a grad student but it was a studio he rented alone.<br>
I wouldn’t have cosigned a lease involving other students. Too risky.</p>
<p>I agree with musicmom, if it were just my child, I wouldn’t have a problem with co-signing, but with a roommate situation, no way. If the landlord would do individual leases, I would be ok with that but not one lease for all of you. Find another place.</p>
<p>Every landlord is different, and each has their own requirement. When my older daughter was in college, I guaranteed her rent (not her roommate). I was paying for her housing anyway, so it didn’t matter. When she graduated and got her first apartment with a friend, I didn’t have to co-sign and she had very little credit history.</p>
<p>If my kid asked me to be the guarantor, I would do it, but not for another person.</p>
<p>In NYC, rule of thumb is they want to see 40 times of rent as your annual income.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is if it is just one lease (even with all of your names on it), what would you do if one of you should back out of it later on (due to job loss, illness…inability to pay)? Who would be responsible for the additional rent or finding a new roommate? You should consider that before you rent an apartment with a group of people.</p>
<p>From what you write, the landlord will let people not on the lease live on the premises. If so, do the following: Have the one person and their parent sign the lease as required, then have those people sublease to the others who will be living there. The sublease will basically be the same as the lease, but the other people will be responsible to the people in the original lease by giving them a damage deposit, paying them rent, and abiding by all the rules of the sublease (which, by the way, can say they must abide by all the rules of the regular lease). The people on the regular lease will be like landlords to the other people, allowing court action if there are problems.</p>
<p>It all depends on the market. In some places it may be easy to find places to rent that do not require a co-signer on the lease. In Manhattan, however, it is customary for landlords to require either documented annual income of at least 30-40 times the monthly rent (often impossible for grad students or new graduates) or a co-signer. My D is in NYC for grad school, living with a roommate. They both signed the lease and both sets of parents had to co-sign.</p>
<p>rankinr: Is it safe to assume that you’re trying to rent an apartment in the Miami area, because different parts of the country might have different levels of strictness on the parental co-signer requirement for students and recent grads. Here is our experience:</p>
<p>With our daughter in NYC we had to co-sign on her first place, a studio in Manhattan, and on her second place, a two bedroom in Brooklyn. With the Brooklyn apartment we had the issue that the other girl’s parents had bad credit and we had to sign for both girls. Obviously we would have preferred that not be the case, but the girl was a close friend of our daughter who we trusted. We also knew that the highly desirable location would make it easy to find a replacement roommate should it come to that. So it depends on how much your parents trust your roommates and if the landlord will allow them to guarantee the entire lease amount. When it came time for the girls to renew their lease last August the landlord felt comfortable leasing to them without us co-signing, likely because of their record of prompt payment and the fact that both girls had graduated and found good jobs.</p>
<p>With our son in Denver we had to co-sign on his first place, a 3 bedroom townhouse with two other guys whose parents also co-signed, and his subsequent one bedroom apartment, solo. Last August he was able to rent a very nice 1 bedroom apartment on his own, but again he had graduated and had a good job, plus great references from the first two places. </p>
<p>I guess the take-home message is that in this tight credit environment most landlords are going to require that students and recent grads have parental co-signers. You and your parents will have to decide if the apartment you have found is worth the risk involved in signing for your roommates.</p>
<p>With my kids, although they were sometimes requested to have a co-signer, they managed to talk the landlord out of it by asking if they’d accept alternatives - like paying an extra month’s rent in the deposit so they effectively paid way ahead, by showing a balance in an account that showed they could pay for 6-12 months of rent even though they had no job, etc. Sometimes it just takes some creativity and convincing of the landlord and if a landlord is inflexible then just move on to the next place.</p>
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I took it that way as well which is strange because it seems to be the opposite from what most places require - most want all residents on the lease and won’t allow subletting.</p>
<p>You need to learn how things are done in your campus area. In Madison, WI near the UW campus parental cosigning of the lease is the norm. I was comfortable with that as the parents had the “deep pockets” to go after if there were problems (of course there weren’t any- and the students had one student paying the utlities, another the cable bill with reimbursement, plus deciding the security deposit return and rent portions based on roommates et al).</p>
<p>If cosigning by parents is the norm you may have to find another place, choose different roommates or find out if you can do a sublet arrangement. Do be aware of the risks and trust involved with apartment mates when making decisions.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for the input. I think we’re going to take your advice and see if we could pay a bit more in advance and in doing so avoid having a parent co-sign. In the case that this isn’t possible, I guess we’ll just move on to another location.</p>
<p>Again, thank you so much - I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>My daughter’s apartment mate is an international student from China. I signed the lease and I know that we will be footing the entire bill if something goes wrong. So far, so good.</p>
<p>yes, if the landlord is inflexible in this area then it’s probably not a good idea to rent from them. also, if you do need to move on to another location, see if you can negotiate a student-friendly lease (one that ends when the school year is over), if that fits your situation.</p>
<p>Keep looking. When S1 and three friends wanted to lease a house in their college town, the realty co. wanted to do a credit check of all parents and wanted employee phone numbers to call and verify parents’ employment. DH said “absolutely not”. So they kept looking and found an even better house that required nothing from parents.</p>
<p>I have this question; four male engineering seniors near LMU in So Cal. They have looked at two places, one of which required a credit check for all the parents, and the second which is asking us to co-sign the lease. Any updates?</p>
<p>I signed a lease for my son and it basically made me responsible for both him and his roommate. His mother had to sign the same for him and my son. Son also had to sign for self and roommate and vice versa. This management company has all of us bound up six times to Sunday. It would be an attorney’s paradise in terms of all the people getting sued if anything went wrong. But the kid seems solid as does the mother, the apartment is nice , so I did it, the first time I ever have for any of my kids. The others all managed to get places somehow on their own, even my poor starving artist in Manhattan who has always lived in very nice apartments with bad or no credit and no real job. All but one, now have their own places. </p>
<p>Sometimes you take the chance. I wouldn’t have signed for my one kid. But I’ve signed to the whazoo for the other. </p>