Here is a question to the blog clinic from Julie, whose brother was a tenant.
My brother died a month ago, with no assets or money, I have agreed that the £499 bond should go towards clearing and cleaning his flat.
But the landlord is saying its £585 just to clear it and will I pay the extra money involved in cleaning it etc. I told them I had to get a grant to pay for his funeral and have no assets myself.
How do I stand legally, i was not his guarantor just his only next of kin.
Answer
No, you cannot be held personally liable for this. As you say, you would only be liable if you had signed a deed of guarantee. Generally one person cannot be held liable for the debts of another – even if you are husband and wife.
The liability to pay for the cleaning falls on the estate of your brother, but if he died insolvent then there is no money in the estate to pay the landlord. So the landlord will have to pay for the cleaning himself.
If a long term tenant had a guarantor at the start of their original tenancy, but a few years have passed and the property has had new agencies and landlords, is the guarantor still the guarantor?
It would depend on how the guarantee was drafted and also whether any of the clauses were ‘unfair’ (under the Consumer Rights Act 2015) and therefore unenforceable.
Ah. How it was drafted?