Spouses, Students and Sureties

We have recently received many queries regarding signatures on documents. Specifically, who must the Landlord or Agent get to sign the lease agreement? There is a simple idiom that reigns true regarding parties to an agreement, explicitly dealing with tenants, more is more. The more people that are signatories to an agreement, the more people you can hold liable for rental and ancillary expenses! There is no legal rule precluding a Landlord from insisting that say a parent or guardian of the student sign the lease agreement together with the student.

Similarly surety agreements are not only used in the commercial property realm. If you have a company lease a property for one of their employees, we always advise that the occupant be a party to the lease agreement or sign a surety document, so that he is concurrently bound for payment. Surety agreements are excellent, specifically when issuing a summons against the Tenant for non-payment of rental and then also serving the same summons on the surety. You usually get a strong affirmative and economically enriching response.

Spouses and Students are the two main Tenant groups we will focus on herein. Many newly married couples look for rental property as their first accommodation together. Agents usually call us at this time to ask which of the spouses must sign the agreement, specifically when they couple is married out of community of property. Again, we insist that both spouses sign, even though only one of the spouses may be economically inclined to sign the document. Having both spouses as signatories on the lease agreement leads to better security for later rental payments. Student accommodation is a great investment, especially when your lease agreement is well drafted. The inclination of the student to pay late decreases as soon as a parent/guardian signs the lease agreement together with the student. This can be conclusively proven by statistics and again we insist on concurrent signature, to better your chances of payments, month in and month out. The TPN Student Lease Agreement in the LeasePack, has already been drafted to include a parent/guardian as co-tenant and we suggest that this document be used, should you not have a tailor-made solution.

Late or non-payment of rental and ancillary expenses is an inherent risk to any rental property investment. Protect yourself or the landlord by insisting on co-signatories or a surety. Never, simply because a party looks as if they will pay in accordance to the lease agreement, overlook the necessity of binding another party jointly for payments in terms of the agreement. This oversight may just be the difference between successful tenancy and fruitless property investment. Kindly call us for any queries or property advice and as always #HappyRenting.