Imperial College London's Rent Guarantee Scheme (2026): the £315-a-week cap, the £72 fee and who qualifies
Short answer: Imperial College London will stand as the UK guarantor for a continuing full-time undergraduate or a full-time PhD student who cannot find one, for rent of up to £315 a week (£1,365 a calendar month) per student, for a maximum of 12 months from the start of the tenancy, for a one-off £72 fee. It guarantees rent only. One-year Master's students and first-year undergraduates are not eligible. If the College pays your landlord, the money becomes a debt on your student account.
This is the third university scheme we have set out on this site, after UCL's and LSE's, and it is the one with the clearest published terms. Everything below is taken from Imperial's Student Accommodation Office pages and the scheme's terms and conditions, checked on 12 September 2026. The College changes its terms between academic years; read the live page before you apply.
What is the Rent Guarantee Scheme?
A private landlord in London will usually ask an applicant for a guarantor: a UK-based person who signs to pay the rent if the tenant does not. Most international students do not have one, and neither do many home students whose parents are not in a position to sign. Imperial's answer, running since 2017, is for the College itself to act as the guarantor on a private tenancy. The College says it has done so for more than 1,200 students since the scheme began.
The College calls it a Rent Guarantee Scheme; the online store product is called the Rent Guarantor Scheme; searchers call it both. It is the same thing.
Who is eligible?
Continuing full-time undergraduates (not first-year entrants) and full-time postgraduate research students who have been asked for a UK guarantor and cannot provide one. One-year Master's students are excluded. The scheme is narrower than UCL's, and the exclusions matter more than the inclusions:
- Continuing full-time undergraduates — not first-year entrants — and full-time postgraduate research students. The terms say this in so many words.
- Postgraduate taught students are excluded. A one-year MSc is the most common international course at Imperial, and it does not qualify.
- You must be fully registered and enrolled for the whole period of the guarantee, and the guarantee ends automatically if you cease to be registered.
- You must have been asked by the landlord for a UK guarantor and have no other way of providing one.
- No outstanding academic or non-academic debt to the College; previous debtors may be refused.
- A satisfactory reference from your most recent accommodation (the College can take this from its own halls records if you lived in halls), and evidence that you can pay the rent: a sponsorship letter, or three months of family or personal bank statements, in English or annotated in English.
- You cannot already have signed the tenancy, except where you are renewing on an extended tenancy the College already guarantees.
Applications go through the Student Accommodation Office (rentguarantee@imperial.ac.uk) with an unsigned copy of the tenancy agreement, and the College says it responds within three to five working days.
The numbers: £315 a week, £72, 12 months
- The cap is £315 a week — £1,365 a calendar month — on your share of the rent. On a joint tenancy the College guarantees each named student's share separately, up to the cap for each. A flat whose rent is above the cap does not become eligible by having a wealthier housemate; each student's share must fit.
- The fee is £72 including VAT, one-off and non-refundable, paid through an online link once the application is approved.
- The guarantee runs for a maximum of 12 months from the tenancy start date, and only while you remain registered. To carry on into a second year you apply again, one month before the current guarantee expires; each renewal is assessed on its own and carries a renewal fee.
For comparison, UCL's scheme charges £50 and caps rent at £1,517 a month; LSE's runs on different rules again. All three are far cheaper than a commercial guarantor: a student paying £1,301–£1,500 a month pays Housing Hand £138 a month for twelve months, on its September 2026 price guide, for a guarantee the College provides for £72 flat. The difference is that the College guarantees a narrower set of people.
What the guarantee covers, and what it does not
Rent only. The terms are explicit that the College will not guarantee "utilities, internet, council tax, or dilapidation charges" or any other contractual liability. A landlord expecting the guarantor to stand behind damage at the end of the tenancy will not get that from Imperial, which is worth saying to the agent at the outset so the referencing is set up correctly.
The property has its own conditions. It must meet the Student Accommodation Office's standards, cannot be a private hall of residence, and the landlord must produce current gas safety (where there is gas), electrical safety and, where required, HMO licence documents. Those are things a landlord should hold anyway; the College simply asks to see them.
If rent is missed
This is the part to read twice. If the College pays your landlord under the guarantee, the amount is added to your student account as a debt. You are expected to agree a repayment plan with the College and clear it before the start of the next academic year or the end of your course, whichever comes first; the College may pass unpaid sums to a debt collection agency. You must tell the Accommodation Office in writing, before the rent is due, if you expect to fall behind, and immediately if your enrolment or funding changes. Giving false information ends your access to the scheme and can lead to disciplinary action.
In other words the College is your guarantor to the landlord, not your insurer. The rent remains yours.
What £1,365 a month buys — from our live list
The cap decides what kind of home the scheme can actually be used for. As at 12 September 2026 there is no self-contained flat on our own lettings list at or under £1,365 a month; the cheapest one-bedroom we have available is £1,600 in NW9, and the two-bedroom flats start at £2,850, which is £1,425 each between two sharers — over the cap. Where the arithmetic works is three sharers in a three-bedroom flat: three of the four on our list today, at £3,500 to £3,850 a month, put each share at £1,167 to £1,283, inside the £315-a-week limit with room to spare. Our list changes weekly and sits mostly in east London, so treat this as an illustration of the maths, not a survey of South Kensington. The point holds across London: at £315 a week, Imperial's scheme is built for a room in a shared flat, not a studio on your own.
What the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed
Imperial's terms are written for the law as it now stands, and three points explain why they read as they do.
- Every private tenancy is now periodic, so a "12-month guarantee" is a limit on the College's exposure, not a term you are locked into. If you leave early you remain liable for rent until your own notice expires: the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, s.5(1ZA), now requires a tenant's notice to be at least two months, unless the landlord agrees a shorter period in writing. That is exactly the "statutory notice period" clause 15 of Imperial's terms refers to.
- Rent in advance is no longer a substitute for a guarantor. A payment of rent before the tenancy is signed is a prohibited payment (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Sch 1 para 1(1A)), and once the tenancy is signed, terms requiring rent in advance are of no effect except for the first rent period, payable between signing and moving in (Housing Act 1988, s.4B). The six-months-upfront offer that used to get an international student through referencing cannot lawfully be asked for.
- The new death rule does not apply here. Since 1 May 2026 a guarantee given by an individual — a parent, say — ceases to cover rent falling due after the tenant's death (Housing Act 1988, s.16N). That section is written for individuals; the College is a corporate guarantor, so its exposure is governed by its own terms instead.
One rule pre-dates the Act and still matters: the deposit is capped at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and the holding deposit at one week (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Sch 1 paras 2 and 3). A guarantor does not change either figure.
If you are a Master's student, or not at Imperial
Because taught postgraduates are excluded, the scheme misses most of the international students who search for it. The routes that remain:
- Ask your own university first. UCL and LSE run schemes for their own students; King's does not, as we set out in the LSE article. A scheme page that mentions eligibility "by faculty" or "for continuing students" is the thing to read closely before you rely on it.
- A commercial guarantor, priced honestly. Housing Hand, Goodlord's professional guarantor and the others are compared, with their published prices, in our guarantor cost comparison, and the co-signer terms are unpacked in the Housing Hand article. Expect to pay a meaningful fraction of a year's rent.
- Know what a landlord can ask for. A landlord or agent may ask for a UK guarantor, and may offer a paid product as an alternative to one (Tenant Fees Act 2019, s.1(7)); they may not make buying a particular service or insurance a condition of the tenancy (s.1(3)). If you are told a product is the only way in, ask for that in writing.
If you are renting through us, the referencing conversation comes before any fee. We accept university schemes, we accept the commercial guarantors that publish their terms, and we will tell you plainly if a flat's rent puts it out of a scheme's reach. What we won't do is send an applicant to buy a product they do not need.
Sources
- Imperial College London, Rent Guarantee Scheme (Student Accommodation Office), checked 12 September 2026: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/accommodation/private-accommodation/support-services/rent-guarantee-scheme/
- Imperial College London, Rent Guarantee Scheme — Terms and Conditions: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/accommodation/private-accommodation/support-services/rent-guarantee-scheme/terms-and-conditions/
- Imperial College London Online Store, Rent Guarantor Scheme, £72.00 including VAT: https://estore.imperial.ac.uk/product-catalogue/central-services/student-accommodation-office/rent-guarantor-scheme
- Housing Act 1988, s.4B (rent in advance): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/4B
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.19 (inserting Housing Act 1988 ss.16N–16P): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/19
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.20 (inserting Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s.5(1ZA)): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/20
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, s.1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/section/1
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1 (paras 1, 2 and 3): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/schedule/1