Should I be a guarantor for my sons mortgage?

Great advice thank you all so much,have definitely decided not to go ahead.....????

Thank you for letting us know, Shinamae.

I hope they manage to find somewhere suitable within their price range.

Yes, thanks for letting us know- you have made the correct decision as you have been informed by many!

Do ‘t Do it.
There was a recent TV prog where elderly Dad was guarantor for rental property where his son lived. Son defaulted. Agent had to call in debt from the guarantor. Elderly chap only had his pension. I’m fairly hard-hearted most of the time, but this elderly chap in tears in agents office, saying he could only pay £100 per month from his OAP to make up huge rent arrears from his son.....even I was in bits.
Help your family out with up front costs if you are able, but not as a guarantor as its such an open-ended commitment.

Being a guarantor is not an open ended commitment, you just need to really understand what you are commiting your self to - and it is the lender's responsibility to check you are financially able to handle the burden of repayment if it arises.

The usual thing is to run through the guarantor's financial situation to check that they can bear the cost should the principle default and only if they can, are they accepted as guarantor. The person offering to be a guarantor should also do their own homework and make sure they are not commiting to something they cannot meet, without selling their home or going bankrupt.

I am amazed that this father was allowed to act as guarantor as he clearly never had the financial resources to be able to complete his side of the agreement if things went wrong.

When DH offered to be the Guarantor for DDs mortgage, we ran through our own financial situation to make sure we could afford to take over her mortgage and pay any arrears if she did default and what we would do with the property then.

DH was then given a very thorough financial going over by the lender to check how we would cope if DD defaulted on her mortgage and only accepted DH as a guarantor when they could see we could sustain the loss in the case of default without any major problems.

Guaranteeing a loan is a financial arrangement that like any other financial arrangement should only be entered into if you understand fully what you are letting yourself into and know you can cope if everything goes pear shaped.

Too many people toss their common sense out of the window when they see a big return or are asked for a loan by a family member. In this case the house concerned wasn't even his son's home, it was a buy to let.

It is tragic when you see these cases on tv or hear them on the radio, but you need to ask yourself to what extent the victim is responsible for the mess they are in, because they frequently are.

I don't think you ought to be a guarantor but, if you can afford it, could you perhaps lend him some money? Would that assist him?

I haven't lent my adult children money to do with property purchases but I did lend one of them £2,000 once and it was paid back £200 a month and everything was fine. I lent another one of my AC £3,500 once and, again, it was paid back with no problems.

These are, I recognise, quite small sums compared with being a guarantor for someone's mortgage.

NO NO NO Never be a guarantor for anybody!