Question

England | Insurance (England) | Pre-tenancy (England)

Rent guarantee insurance

9 Nov 2021 | 2 comments

Can you direct me to links for pros and cons, things to look out for, bad experience  etc please?
Many thanks

 

Answer

2 Comments

  1. guildy

    This isn’t something we particularly have on the website at this time (but a note has been made for a future article).

    We used to have rent guarantee on the website as a service for a couple of months but withdrew because we found it fairly useless (and we believe our members thought the same).

    The problem was that firstly, in order to get insured, they had to pass many checks and so they were only insuring the good ones. We don’t need those insuring! It’s only the bad ones we need to insure!

    The main problem with the checks was the employer reference. In reality, over 50% of checks came back “incomplete” because the employer wouldn’t reply. This in turn meant that they wouldn’t insure them yet, they may have been perfectly good tenants. Especially when all that’s really need is a couple of recent payslips to prove their employment.

    The other problem is of course the expense. We understand since the pandemic, the cost has risen enormously and we believe many have stopped offering but beyond that we don’t know much.

    We totally accept that if you have one or two properties and absolutely rely entirely on the rent to pay the mortgage, it’s a great idea and good protection. But, if you’re more of a full time landlord with a few properties, the cost will likely outweigh the benefit.

    Many agents include rent guarantee by default which is possibly a good option.

    What we personally do with great success is to simply insist that every letting requires a home owning guarantor. This gives the landlord a home-owner to pursue should the rent not be paid. We find this perfectly acceptable and reduces rent loss to a minimum.

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