Co-signers from another country

[Linda Roberts]

My tenants want to add their friend to the lease for a third room. She's expecting to receive a job offer, currently unemployed but has  a good payment history. To address the situation, she has suggested her parents co-sign the lease. While her parents are financially qualified, they reside in Canada, raising concerns about enforceability and payment logistics.Can I get anything from them? Should I ask for a deposit in their daughter's US account? Any other ideas to ensure rent payments?

[David Krulac]

We require co-signer to be local and a real estate owner, so that in case of default we can lien their real estate. Obviously the co-signer needs to sign the lease and accept that responsibility. We ended up evicting such a tenant with the cosigner coming to the hearing and he swore under oath that he did not agree to be a co-signer.  when I produced the document with his original signature, the judge immediately ruled in my favor.  The cosigner refused to pay, I had to renew the judgement, but he finally wanted to refi his home and had to pay me plus interest for all those years to refi his home.