Where more than one tenant signs a tenancy agreement, they are what is known as “jointly and severally” liable for all the terms of the agreement.
What this means in practice is that all tenants are jointly responsible for any damage to the property and for any missed rent. If one tenant does not pay towards the rent then any of the tenants or guarantors can be pursued for this. Similarly it does not matter who caused damage to the property as all tenants are responsible for this.
If a guarantor does not want to cover the whole rent for the property then landlords may consider using our room only tenancy agreement. This way the guarantor will only be liable for the rent for the individual room.
More information on joint and several liability can be seen in our blog post.