Tracing a guarantor: finding the person who guaranteed a tenancy, a loan or a business debt

Who counts as a guarantor

A guarantor promises to pay if someone else does not. The common cases are:

• Rent guarantors, often a parent who guaranteed a student's or a young tenant's rent.
• Loan guarantors, who signed alongside a borrower with little credit history.
• Directors and business owners who personally guaranteed their company's lease, overdraft, supplier account or finance agreement.

Some agreements use an indemnity instead of, or as well as, a guarantee. The legal difference matters, because an indemnity can survive problems that would release a guarantor, so a solicitor should look at the wording. For tracing purposes they are the same: a separate person, with their own address, who is liable for someone else's debt. That person is often older, more settled and more likely to own property than the debtor, which is why guarantors are worth finding.

Read the guarantee before you look for anyone

The document decides whether there is anything to claim, and it is also the best source of details for a trace. Check these points first:

• Is it in writing and signed? A guarantee must be in writing and signed by the guarantor, or by someone authorised on their behalf. One agreed only by word of mouth is generally unenforceable.
• What does it cover? Rent only, or damage and costs too? A cap on the amount? A fixed period, or any renewal or continuation of the agreement?
• Was it signed as a deed? That affects the limitation period, as explained below.
• Does liability depend on a demand? Many guarantees require a written demand, or notice of the debtor's default, before the guarantor has to pay. Look for a notices clause that says how and where a demand must be sent.
• Has the main agreement changed? A significant change to the underlying agreement made without the guarantor's agreement can release them, unless the guarantee allows for it. Take advice if it has.
• Is the debt under a regulated consumer credit agreement? If so, the Consumer Credit Act 1974 adds requirements for the form of the guarantee and for copies of notices to be given to the guarantor.

The guarantee, and the application or reference forms that came with it, usually hold the guarantor's full name, their address at the time, and often a date of birth, a phone number and an email address. That is everything a trace needs to start.

Do you have to pursue the main debtor first?

As a general rule, no. Once the tenant, borrower or company has defaulted, the creditor can usually claim from the guarantor without first suing or exhausting remedies against the main debtor, unless the guarantee itself says otherwise. Some guarantees do, so read the wording.

The main debtor's position does not usually release the guarantor either. A director who personally guaranteed a company's debts generally remains liable if the company goes into liquidation, because covering that risk was the point of the guarantee. Where both the debtor and the guarantor can be found, it is common to write to both, and a letter to a settled guarantor often produces a response from one of them.

Why guarantors move too

Guarantors are usually easier to find than the people whose debts they guarantee, but they are not static. Years can pass between signing and default. Parents downsize or retire. Couples separate. Directors leave the home they gave as their address when a business fails. The address on a guarantee signed at the start of a five-year lease, or for a tenancy that ran on for years, may be long out of date by the time you need it.

If you have any reason to think the guarantor has moved, such as returned post, a sale of the property or simply the passage of time, establish where they live now before you send a demand or a letter of claim.

What you can check yourself

• Ask the main debtor. A tenant or borrower may simply tell you where their parent or business partner now lives, or pass a letter on.
• Write to the address on the guarantee. Mark it "please forward" and give a way to reply. Post that is redirected reaches the guarantor, though nobody will tell you the new address.
• Check the public companies register if the guarantor is a director. It gives a service address, which is often an accountant's or the company's office rather than a home, but a letter sent there is usually passed on. Finding a company director's home address explains the difference.
• Check who owns the address on the guarantee. Property ownership records are searched by address, so for a small fee you can see whether the guarantor still owns the property they gave. If they do, a letter there is likely to reach them even if they live elsewhere.

The demand, the letter of claim and limitation

Make any demand the guarantee requires, in the way and to the place its notices clause sets out. Even where the contract allows a demand to be sent to the last address the guarantor gave, a court claim is different: if you have reason to believe the guarantor no longer lives at the address you hold, the Civil Procedure Rules expect you to take reasonable steps to find their current address before you serve the claim form there.

Where the creditor is a business, which usually includes a landlord, and the guarantor is an individual, the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims is likely to apply: a letter of claim with the documents the Protocol requires, and 30 days for a reply before you issue. Between businesses, the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct still expects a letter before claim and a reasonable time to respond. Checking an address is current before a letter before action covers that step.

Under the Limitation Act 1980 a claim on a guarantee made as a simple contract generally has to be brought within six years, and one made by deed within twelve. When the period starts depends on the wording: where the guarantee makes the guarantor liable only on demand, it may run from the demand rather than from the debtor's default. Take advice if the dates are close. Issuing a claim stops the clock; tracing does not.

Tracing the guarantor

A guarantor is a separate person, so finding them is a separate trace, with its own fee, charged only if they are found. It is often worth instructing at the same time as a trace for the tenant or borrower. The minimum is the guarantor's full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address, and the address on the guarantee counts as a previous address, so almost every creditor has enough to start.

Trace Bureau cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a private investigator checks and verifies the result. You receive a dated PDF report with the guarantor's current registered UK address and a confidence rating: Confirmed, Probable or Possible. Where it is useful, and with a guarantor it often is, you can add a property ownership check on the address found, from HM Land Registry, at £30, charged only if delivered. A mobile number or an email address can be added at £30 each, where on file.

Standard is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days, and Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. Letting agents, lenders and other firms that instruct ten or more traces a month pay £120 per trace on a firm account. There is nothing to pay when you instruct. Your card is only saved, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified a current address. Not found, no fee.

The lawful basis, and what to do with the address

Recovering money due under a guarantee is a legitimate interest under UK GDPR, and the purpose is recorded against every instruction. The guarantor is not told who instructed the trace. Use the address for what you said: the demand, the letter of claim, the claim form and lawful enforcement. Do not call at the guarantor's home to have it out with them, and do not pass the address to anyone else.

If you need more than an address, such as a picture of what the guarantor owns before you decide whether to sue, that is asset tracing. Our sister service, Investigation Bureau (investigationbureau.uk), handles it, along with process serving and due diligence.

When to instruct a professional trace

Instruct once the main debtor has defaulted, you have read the guarantee, and you have reason to think the guarantor is no longer at the address on it. Trace the tenant or borrower at the same time if they have gone too. Landlords will find the wider steps in the landlord's guide to tracing a former tenant, and creditors in tracing a debtor before court. Instruct a trace online in about five minutes.