A personal guaranty on a commercial lease converts business rent into personal exposure — and the structure of the guaranty, not just the rent, decides how much. Enter a lease below to see the same failure scenario priced under the four common structures: full-term, good guy, rolling, and burn-off.
The lease
The guaranty structures
Personal exposure at month 18
Full-term guaranty
$465,596
43 months of rent — every month left on the term
Good guy guaranty
$61,800
6 months of rent — the surrender-notice window
Rolling guaranty
$125,145
12 months of rent — a fixed window of rent
Burn-off guaranty
$188,799
18 months of rent — cap after 1 clean year
These figures are the arithmetic of the four base structures on your inputs — hypothetical exposure, not a reading of any document. Real guaranties move these numbers through their definitions: what counts as additional rent, arrears at surrender, acceleration sequencing, and the conditions on each cap. Educational information, not legal advice.
Every structure answers the same question — how many months of rent does the guarantor personally stand behind if the business fails at a given month — and each answers it differently:
Annual escalation compounds the monthly rent at each lease-year boundary, which is why late-term exposure under long windows runs higher than the headline rent suggests. Alternatives that replace the guaranty entirely — letters of credit, enlarged security deposits — are worked through in personal guaranty alternatives.
How is personal guaranty exposure calculated?
The baseline is the rent the guaranty stands behind for the months it covers. A full-term guaranty covers every month remaining on the lease at the point of failure. Limited structures cover a defined window instead: the surrender-notice period (good guy), a fixed number of months (rolling), or a cap that steps down over time (burn-off). Escalation clauses compound the monthly figure year over year.
Why does the failure month change the exposure so much?
Under a full-term guaranty, exposure is highest on day one and declines every month as the remaining term shrinks. Under a rolling guaranty, exposure stays roughly flat. Under a burn-off, it steps down on a schedule. The same lease can produce a very large or very small personal number depending on when the failure happens and which structure the guaranty uses.
Does this calculator tell me what my guaranty is worth?
No. It models the arithmetic of the four base structures on inputs you choose. A specific guaranty moves those numbers through its definitions — what counts as additional rent, whether arrears void a cap, how acceleration interacts with surrender. It is educational information, not legal advice and not an analysis of any document.
What is the difference between a good guy, rolling, and burn-off guaranty?
All three limit a personal guaranty along different axes. A good guy guaranty caps exposure at the occupancy period plus a surrender-notice window. A rolling guaranty caps it at a fixed window of rent regardless of when failure happens. A burn-off guaranty starts at a stated cap and steps down as clean lease years accumulate.
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This calculator is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. It models hypothetical exposure under simplified base structures on inputs you provide; it does not analyze any actual document, and real guaranties vary in ways that change these figures. Always consult qualified legal counsel for advice specific to your situation.