Hi Darren,

The basis of using a Guarantor is to act as a safety net in the event your tenant defaults in some way.

The most important thing is that the Guarantor is able to make good the default (in monetary terms) so it's vital, in the event attempts to get reddress from the Guarantor fail, the Guarantor owns property assets that you can put a charge against in order to recover the lost monies. (Usually the threat to put a charge on a Guarantor's property brings results anyway)

Traditionally, it's easier to trace, confirm and charge against a UK property, but the Guarantor need not be based in the UK, however- dealing with a foreign based Guarantor is inevitably going to be more complicated hence the good practice to require the Guarantor to be UK based as well as owning UK based property.

I hope this helps
Cheers
Colin Harvey