Singing Pig

whats the boards thoughts and experience on this service?

Ive never used it as always thought it was a bit of a con and most of my properties are low mortages but keep feeling im missing something.

Hi devo/Bosco.

What type of "Rent Guarantee" do you mean?  There are at least 3 different types...

• Insurance to protect you against a tenant not paying
• An agent/seller offering you guaranteed rental income
• A guarantee that you offer your tenant (sometimes used in Sell And Rent Back cases)

Best wishes,
Alan

Hi Alan

 Looking at your 3 types I'm probably interested in them all as they are all relevant to me

But originally I was asking about the first. I had thought of homelet or leaseguard.

As a landlords conusltancy practice, we cannot stress enough that rental guarantee should be put in place for each and every letting, likeswise legal expenses cover.

We are seeing a ever increasing amount of landlords whom are experiencing problems with non paying tenants, whom have no protection in place to rely on.  Unfortunatly alot of lanldords rush their tenants in for economic reasons, without taking references, id verification etc.  These rental guarantee are inexpensive, especially when you take into consideraton the amount of cover that you are offered.  Some of these polcies can cost as little as 23p per day to have in place.  A landlord should not even contemplate letting their property without these.  Whilst we offer landlords full protection with mechanisam we offer, we speak to a multitude of lanldords who have problems, who retropsectively wished they had these in place.

The best way foward for landlords is to get an insurance based guarantee product, take proper references, id checks, credits checks prior to any tenant taking tenancy.  This is a pre-requiste for most insuranace based products.  At least if you have this in place should their be a default you do have the mechanisms to make claim on mones due to you.  If your rental gurantee does not include legal expenses cover, you need to ensure that you also have this in place to cover you in the case whereas you have to pursue your tenant via court.

Regards

pebble - effective landlord solutions

Sorry but have to disagree with Pebble. I would love to know the stats of claims paid out on these policies!

I used to run a letting agents as well as my own portfolio and having seen both myself and my landlords take out a number of these polices and not seeing ONE paid out upon I said I would never offer them again or use them myself.

Be very careful of the small print and conditions which generally include some or all of the following:-

No DSS, HMOs, students, asylum/Govt lets, company lets, etc.

Full credit checks and references as specified in the policy – miss one and you’ve lost your payout

Credit checks usually have to be performed by a certain company as specified by the insurer

S18 and 21 procedures must be followed to the letter – any deviation means no payout

Some will insist you use their legal team to do this – at great expense

ANY issues on credit reports whatsoever will mean an automatic exclusion

Lisa

Whilst we take Lisa's points on board, the insurance based schemes we offer do pay out.

Lisa is correct in mentioning the small print, alot of insurance based products are offered on the basis that the referencing does go via approved referencing company.  On the basis that the references were suitable then the product would be offered.  Luckily enough on the product that we offer the claims that have been made have been covered, along with the legal expenses and a solicitor attending the possession hearing.

There are alot of products on the market, cheapest is not by all means the best as it may only cover you portionally for your loss.  Details of the cover available need to be looked at first, as some products need to be tied up within other policies covering your property, ie; building/contents and they may not be best placed to cover you in a default.

A good product will cover you on the basis that the tenant defaults as long as the landlord does not take any action that would invalidate the policy.  As an example one of our client had to make a claim last year as the tenant stopped paying the rental.  Once the section 8 notice had been served it was placed in the hand of the solicitors who act on behalf of the insurance based scheme.  Possession was sought via them with them attending the hearing, the cleint not only received possession of their property but also the five months rental that was outstanding.  Bearing in mind that the payout was subject to a policy excess of half a calendar months rental.  Albeit taking into consideration if the client had not obtained rental guarantee they would of incurred a bill for solicitors to pursue this on  their behalf, with no guarantee that they would of been able to enforce any monetry judgement against the tenant.

Regards

pebble - effective landlord solutions

Thanks lisa

Has anyone actually had regular pay outs from these insurances when something has gone wrong?

Hi guys

I found one company that has 'always paid out on rent arrears, eviction & legal fees' on DSS tenants on numerous occasions (6 times) & also when the flat is vacant after eviction they provide half the rental amount until it has been rented out.

Will provide all the details later.