“It feels so unjust. You own a property, you let it to someone on the promise of a fair rent, and they don’t pay up. More often than not, you will have a mortgage to pay, and the lender expects its monthly instalments. It feels like the property owner takes all the risks. Surely my insurance broker will be able to find a way to mitigate the risk of arrears with insurance.”
This is quite a common complaint in the world of property renting. There are however, insurance policies available to ensure that if this happens to you, you will have any lost income replaced and the insurance company will make their best efforts to have the errant tenant evicted from the property.
Since the recession hit and more and more people have been struggling to afford rent, this type of insurance has risen greatly in popularity. There are many reasons that people let themselves get into arrears with rent, they could be one half of a divorced couple struggling on their own, or a trades-person without much work, but either way the vast majority of people do not intend to get into arrears when they take on the property, however landlords do have a right to collect rent.
In most cases, the landlords actually need the rent payments to keep up their payments on the mortgage. With the rise in “buy to let” mortgages landlords are quite often just regular people with mortgage payments to meet, and if they get behind on them then their property could be repossessed, and so that’s why a lot of them are willing to pay out a little bit more for the insurance to cover them against failed rent payments.
There are two main aspects of this insurance, the first being insurance against lost income from tenants going into arrears. Then for a premium the insurance company will pay you the rent if the tenant does not. Some insurers will ask for credit checks but some will not, and some will not insure you if the tenant is claiming benefits, but some will so make sure to take care when choosing your policy.
Secondly, the insurance company will often help you to secure an eviction if your tenant simply can’t keep up. This is very helpful, and you should make sure you have this cover with your insurances. Most landlords do not have the time or the skills to succeed in this minefield. If you are a landlord/property owner, your insurance broker will be able to advise you on the correct insurance for your property.
If you are a landlord and you are looking for some friendly advice on property owners insurance, you should visit Coversure, one of the UK’s best providers of insurance for anything from motorbikes to caravan insurance.