Purchased as part of Legal Expenses add-on at new business or renewal. Restricted claims for existing tenants in the first 90 days after purchase. An eviction notice must have been correctly served before making a claim. Excludes prior losses and rent reduction. Excludes rent arrears while possession proceedings are delayed/ prevented by legislation, government or court.
Any tenant could find themselves in financial difficulty, and no longer able to pay their rent. Rent Guarantee is part of our Legal Expenses cover, which can be added to your landlord insurance - meaning you'll have a safety net to fall back on should you stop receiving expected rental payments.
Adding Rent Guarantee Insurance to your landlord policy means you'll be covered for any unpaid rent once you've served an eviction notice. As well as covering the unpaid rent while seeking possession, we'll also cover the cost of repossessing the property.
If your tenants can't pay, we'll pay instead. And you won't have any excess to pay either.
You may find your property needs repairs before it can be let out again. Through rent guarantee, we'll pay 50% of the rent you had previously received while the repairs are taking place. This will continue for up to three months, or until the property is let - whichever happens first.
The maximum period for each rent arrears claim is 12 months, and there's no limit on the number of claims you can make in this period. Cover is provided up to a maximum of £250,000 per claim.
Rent Guarantee is part of our Legal Expenses cover - an optional extra that can be added to our Landlord Insurance for an extra layer of protection. You cannot buy Rent Guarantee as a stand-alone policy.
If you're already a Landlord Insurance customer, you can take out Legal Expenses cover when you renew and add Rent Guarantee then.
If you're a new customer, you'll need to take out Legal Expenses cover when you buy our Landlord Insurance. You will then be able to add Rent Guarantee.
Legal Expenses covers the legal costs and expenses you face when dealing with disputes related to renting out your property. We can pay out up to £250,000 per claim.
We cover:
In order to qualify for Rent Guarantee Insurance, your property must be residential and in the UK. You need to have a satisfactory reference for each tenant and each guarantor from a referencing service before the tenancy begins. It must include:
You must keep clear and up-to-date rental records, and the property needs to be let using one of the following contracts:
The policy wording has the full terms and conditions, but the following circumstances aren't covered:
Unless equivalent Legal Expenses insurance was continuously in force immediately prior to the start of our Rent Guarantee cover, claims for Rent arrears within 90 days of the first period of Rent Guarantee cover - where the tenancy agreement started before the start of the Rent Guarantee insurance - would not be covered.
Rent arrears if the property is not let under a specific letting agreement defined by the Housing Act 1988, the renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988, the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, or the Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 would also not be covered.
We will not pay any claim for rent arrears which accrue during a period where any legislation, government or court guidance, court system or court rules result in:
We will not pay:
Dealing with late or non-payment of rent can be stressful, especially if you rely on that income for your own bills and monthly mortgage payments. Before you decide to serve an eviction notice and make a claim on your rent guarantee insurance, there are a number of steps you may want to consider to help get things back on track.
If you haven't done so already, have a conversation with your tenants to find out what the issue could be. The tenants might have hit short-term financial difficulties where you can try to work together to come up with a payment plan for reclaiming all of the unpaid rent.
If the financial difficulties are long-term and the tenant is unwilling to cooperate, it might be best to break the contract and find new tenants.
There are some helpful resources you can suggest for tenants experiencing financial difficulties, including the Money Advice Service's Money Navigator Tool and the Business Debtline, for free and impartial money advice.
If you have legal expenses insurance, you will also have access to ARAG Businesslaw where you can find helpful guides on what to do if your tenants aren't paying their rent, as well as a useful payment plan template.
ARAG Businesslaw also contains a number of other useful templates and guides for landlords outside of unpaid rent situations, including:
For more information on how to register for ARAG Businesslaw, please see your legal expenses insurance policy documents for your unique access code.
Once the tenant has not paid rent for 30 days and the relevant Section 21 or Section 8 notice has been issued, then you can claim.
You must inform our Legal Expenses cover provider ARAG as soon as possible. The claims handler then will inform you within five working days whether the claim is covered, or if more information is needed.
If the claim is covered, you'll be provided with the details of the solicitor assigned to your case and what to expect next. Any claims reported after 90 days after the date of the rent not being paid when expected is not covered.
Examples of some of the documents we need when you claim:
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