It's not what the letting agents says that matters, it's the contract your friend signed when acting as guarantor. The contract should state the term and any exit conditions.

Having rented property myself, I find it surprising the daughter has signed nothing beyond the initial contract as that would normally include a termination date (long since passed). If the daughter has signed nothing since, it's hard to understand what contract the letting agency is holding your friend to. But, as I said before, your friend should check the contract she signed.

A guarantor may agree to guarantee the rent for a fixed term tenancy, for example, a twelve month assured shorthold tenancy or in the case quoted a six month tenancy agreement. If the fixed term expires and the tenancy continues as a periodic tenancy, or a new fixed term tenancy is agreed without the involvement of the guarantor, the guarantor's responsibility will usually come to an end.

A periodic tenancy is an agreement for an indefinite period, until the landlord or tenant ends it. 'Periodic' refers to the rent period, or intervals at which the tenant pays her/his rent, for example, weekly or monthly. A periodic tenancy could be either a contractual tenancy, created by an agreement between the landlord and tenant, or a statutory tenancy, which arises when a fixed term ends such as the six months under the original tenancy. With a statutory tenancy the landlord must follow set procedures to make changes to the original tenancy agreement.

I hope you can follow the above. It is a bit technical.

XXXX's reply to this is the 'de facto' position. Unless terminated the AST automatically rolls into the Periodic Tenancy mentioned. (Caution here as some agents will try and get a fee again at the end of the AST contractually agreed period which YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY) However the Periodic Tenancy is a continuation of the original agreement and as such doesn't release any guarantor from their financial obligation. The specific terms of this would have to be varied by a renegotiation of the terms of the lease if the tenant felt that they had proven 'ability to pay' and the landlord agrees and waives the guarantor obligation. We have just done this with a tenant that had CCJ's due to her ex-husbands endebtedness, she has been in the property two years, never missed a payment, we had to materially vary the lease to accommodate her daughter becoming 18 and waived the guarantor obligation voluntarily. We own and manage 13 rental properties and my wife runs a large rental property portfolio in London so we are confident of this opinion. Hope this helps

Hi Prof Eman,

I am not sure of the sum in question do you mind disclosing it? However, my advice would be, unless it is a lot of money (say £1000+) forget it and move on!

It never ceases to a)amaze us what a mess other peoples lives are, b) what a mess they can make one's own life, and c) that any type of litigation or action against tenants is loaded in their favour....they generally have nothing so they have nothing to lose, they get legal aid you spend hours trying to litigate in person to mitigate costs or even if a CCJ is brought against them they don't pay and if the person has a criminal record well, what more can be said!

We have walked away from as much as £10k worth of damages and unpaid rent because it got too stressful. We are in the lucky position now to interview all our tenants, and don't take any we don't want, we only accept a minimum of two months deposit on the basis if they can't find it now how could they if they became unable to pay the rent if they hit a bump, and one months deposit doesn't go that far in respect of damage or neglect.

There argument is an interesting one and it (again) never ceases to amaze one what get thrown up. However, my feeling is that unless the property was, by reason of any action, or inaction, by yourself then the rent is due and payable, there is an AST in force and it is not an hotel.

In these circumstances a call or email to the charity Shelter might be worthwhile as they are very tenant biased but could well have a view on this.

Any one else with a similar experience of dealing with the Probation Service or some other Government Department? and did you manage to resolve your problem?