Student Rental Gone Wrong: Why ‘My Dad’s Paying’ Isn’t Good Enough

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Student Rental Gone Wrong: Why ‘My Dad’s Paying’ Isn’t Good Enough

Jorge VazquezBusiness Member
Real Estate Broker · Tampa, FL · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 685 votes

Let me tell you what happened to one of my top agents today… Bradley’s sharp. He knows what he’s doing. But even he got tripped up by something simple: trust. He rented to international students who said, “My parents are paying,” and didn’t get anything in writing from the parents. The place got trashed. Parents were nice about it, but legally, he had nothing to lean on. The big takeaway? If the tenant has no income, don’t skip the co-signer. Get it in writing. Verbal promises won’t pay for repairs.

Tell me about your experience, I want to write an article about it!

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  • Jorge VazquezBusiness Member
    OP
    Real Estate Broker · Tampa, FL · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 685 votes
    1y

    An Update from BradleyAfter reading the draft, Bradley added another important layer. He explained that the lease had been structured as a single master lease—not three individual ones. This meant all three tenants were jointly responsible for the full rent amount of $2,100. If one tenant bailed, the remaining two were still on the hook.This structure seemed smart at the start. It protected the landlord from partial vacancies and ensured full rent collection. But in hindsight, it created a new challenge: one of the tenants ended up in jail, and the others wanted out. Since it was a single lease, any eviction would apply to all three, not just the one causing issues.Now, the families are trying to negotiate a mutual release agreement to avoid a full-blown eviction. But there’s a roadblock—the incarcerated tenant has to sign the release himself. His parents, although willing to cooperate, don’t have power of attorney.There were also more serious issues discovered in the unit, including a locked room, but we’ll leave those details aside. The point is: what started as a "safe" leasing strategy ended up complicating everything.

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  • Peter MckernanBusiness Member
    Residential Real Estate Agent · Irvine, CA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    1y

    Yes for sure always get a co-signer/guarantor on the lease, run the credit for the person that is co-signing to keep them on the hook for it all. This means they are watching even more than the kids/tenant is watching what is going on. 

    I did this on one of my rentals, tenant needed her dad to sign, he did and we pulled credit. After a year he wanted off, he did not resign, she had been a good tenant.. It did not go super bad, but she started to push payments to the middle of the month every once and awhile and then we got her out there after another year and a half of at times skipping the 1st of the month and paying on the 14th or 15th. Keep the co-signer on the lease even if the person stays for a year and all is good, and the co-signer off. They co-signed on your lease for a reason. 

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  • Casey CoffeyBusiness Member
    Santa Clarita, CA · Member since 2021 · 15 posts · 20 votes
    1y

    We generally don't lease to international students unless they have a parent or family member who is located in the united states, an more specifically the state we are renting the property in. Even if the parents did sign the lease as co-signers, with them being located out of the United States, suing them would be near impossible to recover any damages. 

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