Be Our Guarantor: an estranged student's call to universities

I am estranged from my parents, and I was homeless when I applied for university. I was using it as a way to pull myself out of the situation after trying everything else, so finding out that despite managing to get into university, I may not be able to attend because I couldn’t find a guarantor was very disheartening, and it was hard to fight the feelings of despair.

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My sister was already attending the university I got an offer from, and as an estranged student, she was working with the university on how they could help students that are estranged from their parents. So, the student liaison officer and university housing officer were aware that I was planning to start a degree at the university, and they approached me to set up a meeting to discuss guarantor issues.

They weren’t able to help me, other than offering advice, but shortly afterwards the university did put a policy in place where they could become a students’ guarantor, which has helped other students like me.

In the end, I resolved the guarantor issue for myself because I was informed that the student housing provider I was using did not do thorough checks on guarantors, so I put a willing friend’s information in and just made sure that my rent was always paid on time, so that the guarantor’s information would never be needed or looked into.

I constantly felt anxious about the possibility of being made homeless again if the housing provider looked into my guarantor’s information.

Friendships were strained because I had to use their information to essentially fake a guarantor. I used the last of my money on a rental deposit, so I couldn’t use a service where you pay them to be your guarantor.

I would advise other students in the same position I was in to look into whether the university they are applying to has any rent guarantor policies in place, and maybe call around different universities before applying.

If you’ve already applied to a university that doesn’t have a policy, then campaign for them to put something in place.

You can ask the housing provider whether they have any policies or know if there's anywhere you can go for help. If they’ve dealt with a similar issue before they might know of different services or be able to help you.

My aim is for all universities to have guarantor policies, have good communication with student housing providers and know as much as they can to help students who come to them.

That’s why I got involved with the ‘Be Our Guarantor’ campaign. I want to tell my story, help other students in my position and get universities to act and put rent guarantor policies and services in  place to help students like me.

There are loads of tools to help you do this on the ‘Be Our Guarantor’ campaign website.

• Courtney is a campaign ambassador for The Unite Foundation