Parent Guarantor

[Noralee Deason]

I am in the process of converting the condo my daughter has been living in while in college to a rental.  I spent a good bit of time yesterday putting together an application and lease, but was struggling with how to deal with the parent guarantor piece since I will likely end up with college students.  

• I was going to collect a $30 application fee per tenant, plus the HOA requires a separate criminal background check only from the local sheriff's office. This will cost the applicant another $20. In the event of parent guarantors, I'm assuming I need to at least check their credit... Would you just accept the $30 per applicant, but actually ONLY check the parent's background and just let the criminal background check suffice for the student, rather than trying to charge an application fee to the applicant and guarantor?
• Do you have the parent guarantor complete a quasi-application with the same employment history, residency history, credit history, etc?  Or, is it a separate section on the regular application?  Any language used would be helpful.
• At the time of lease signing, do you have the parent sign a section on the actual lease, or a supplemental form?  Again, language used would be helpful.

Thanks so much!