Guarantee (kaution)
Also known as surety, guarantor, personal guarantee, kaution, kautionist, selvskyldnerkaution, personlig kaution
A guarantee is a third party's promise to pay if the debtor does not — typically the owner standing surety for his own company.
- Gives you
- One more debtor
- Survives
- The company's bankruptcy
In practice
A guarantee is the security that still works when the company is empty. If the owner has given a personal guarantee, the company’s bankruptcy does not touch your claim — you simply pursue the guarantor instead.
Selvskyldnerkaution — a guarantee as for the guarantor’s own debt — is the strong variant: you can go straight for the guarantor without first having exhausted your options against the principal debtor.
For small limited companies (ApS) with no equity, a personal guarantee from the owner is often the only real security there is.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- It is never asked for. Owners of small companies say yes more often than creditors assume — particularly if the alternative is no credit at all.
- The guarantee is not in writing. A promise across the table is nothing when it matters.
- You ask for a guarantee once the customer is already in trouble. Security given at that point can be clawed back if bankruptcy follows.