Communicating with Parent Cosigners as a Landlord

When you rent apartments or properties to college students or young adults, requiring a cosigner or having your tenant use one to help them get the lease is pretty typical. College students don’t usually have a stable enough income or high enough credit score to get an apartment on their own, so a cosigner is there to ensure that you’re still going to get your rent if something falls through.

While communicating with these parent cosigners might seem like it would be infrequent compared to their child who lives on your property, they are still on the lease, making it inevitable and sometimes necessary. Here are the best ways to communicate with parent cosigners as a landlord.

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Collect Contact Information

First, to make communication easy, you need any and all contact information for a parent cosigner. This includes email, mobile phone, home phone, or maybe even a work phone. While you might not use some of these numbers, having it is better than not in case an emergency pops up. You might even consider getting their own emergency contacts in case they are not available and you need to get a hold of them. After all, you can’t communicate if you have no means of communication!

Speak as if They Are a Tenant

Your relationship with a cosigner is essentially the same as that of a tenant–They are on the lease and responsible for payments if anything goes missed. Because of this, the cosigners are entitled to all of the information your tenant, their child, is. This includes answering any and all questions and going over the lease with them. They are helping their child because of their experience in renting and they know what to look for. Both signer and cosigner should be present for signing and be able to ask as many questions as they would like.

Because of this, they are also entitled to any other communications that you send to your tenants, such as updates to the property and access to any kind of portal. Common methods for updates are an email list. If they choose to be removed from the list, they can be, but you should always provide them with any and all information you would provide to a tenant.

Clear Up Expectations

As a cosigner, the parent needs to understand what exactly they are getting into. While they are helping their child get a lease because of their income and credit score, that is not where their responsibility ends. As a cosigner, they will be legally responsible for making any rental payments if the tenant is unable to make them. They are also not able to easily back out of the lease if something were to happen. They are just as reliable for the lease as the tenant is. While most parents do understand the responsibilities of being a cosigner, it’s important that you help them understand that and what payments they are expected to make, and the consequences for both them and their child if they fail on those duties.

Use the Law to Your Advantage

As mentioned above, a cosigner is legally obligated to make any missing payments if the tenant is not able to fulfill the rent requirements. If they try to skirt around that responsibility, you have the law on your side. However, you need to ensure that you have been following the law to the letter so that everything will help your case. While hopefully legal action is not required, the reminder of the law can be enough for them to give you the necessary rent.

Remind them that, as a cosigner, this will impact their credit score, credit history, and rental history, which can negatively impact their ability to find other homes in the future.

Set Boundaries

Lastly, there is a professional relationship between you and the cosigner and they should not ask you to do things outside the realm of a landlord or property manager. Some parent cosigners want to keep an eye on their child and may try to ask what exactly is happening in the apartment or ask you to help their child with household duties, such as chores or cleaning. This is not part of your job and you are welcome to set that boundary. You are a landlord, not a babysitter. You may understand where they are coming from, but that does not change your relationship or responsibilities.

Remain professional as you set these boundaries and insist this is a conversation best done between them and your child. While they are entitled to property updates, you cannot give them personal updates.

Communicating with parent cosigners as a landlord shouldn’t be too difficult, so long as you speak clearly about the lease, their expectations, offer them property updates, and keep that professional boundary intact.