A Parent's Role in Student Rent

By Elizabeth Hilfrank on August 1, 2017

Photo courtesy of pexels.com

If you rent to college students, there are many factors to consider. One factor especially important to note is that signing a lease with a college student is usually not the only person with whom you are signing it. Parents typically play a large role.

The most prominent way parents appear in the student rental process is through financing the apartment. Most students cannot afford the rent by themselves for the entire year. Speaking from a personal perspective, I know that many people’s parents pay the rent because they consider it the same thing as paying for room and board on campus. With this realization, one would suggest having a parent agree to be a co-signer on the apartment.

With a parent as a co-signer, there is more of a guarantee that your rent will come every month, if not early. Many parents prefer to pay for the semester up front instead of segment-by-segment, which will further promise your rent and the duration of your resident’s stay. They can also make up for the lack of credit history on the student, and by having them sign on the dotted line, you are now directly holding them accountable in the case that they need to contribute.

Having the additional financial resource will prove important in either an undergraduate or graduate student lease. Even if the student does currently have a job, there is no guarantee that he or she will be able to maintain it for the entire school year on top of their academic rigor. What’s more is that any job a student may be able to manage on top of school will probably be a minimum wage position, and it will be hard for him to work enough hours to maintain monthly rent. If you want even more security, have both parents sign on.

If the parents do sign on, perform the tenant screening on them as well. Because they play such an integral role in the rent, it is important to see just who exactly they are. It may lead you into some additional insight on the student as well.

If the parent does not co-sign the lease, it is still important to have the contact information of a parent or guardian. Without seeming like a tattle-tale, you can use this information to reach an authoritative figure if the resident is not treating you as one. When the rent is late, the behavior is out-of-line, or you haven’t seen the resident in a while, call in additional forces.

It is also important to pay attention to the attitude of the parent when you are starting the rental process with the student resident. Having parents involved in the process could make for some challenges. The overprotective type may come across as very demanding, and he may be more of a nuisance than a help throughout the year.

Additionally, if the parent seems to be taking the reigns on the renting process, you may want to consider the fact that the student does not have much knowledge on the subject. This could lead to further problems down the line as you try to teach an amateur renter proper protocol. What’s more, if the student has lived under, for lack of a better term, a hovercraft, all his life, he may not know how to do a lot of typical home fix-ups. You may want to warn your maintenance workers that they will be putting in some overtime for this apartment.

If you see that a parent is playing an active role in the rental process, then keep in mind the expectations of a typical parent. A parent is going to look deeper into an apartment and all of its features than a typical student would. So, make sure you work to maintain the property and do all that you say you do because parents talk, and you don’t want any negative publicity.

All of the above breaks down the role of a parent in student rent to fine details, but the general takeaway is that students are just that, students. This means that they are still learning whether it be inside or outside the classroom. Most parents are going to want to help their students learn just as they did in fourth grade with the multiplication tables. They want to have a say in where their children live, especially if the child decides to leave campus.

It will be hard to rent to a student without any parent interaction, and you should like it this way. They are the ones that are most likely contributing the most to your income, and they will help to teach their children all the responsibility that comes with renting an apartment. While they may test your limits with question after question, a parent is a very good person to have on your side when renting to a student.

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