boydens.co.uk Advice 66 The rental safety net Paul Buck, Boydens Head of Sales and Lettings, shines a light on the importance of a rental guarantee for landlords who want to protect their income. The most common reason for letting a property is to receive a rental income; this could be used for a pension, investment or to fund daily living costs. Over the many years Boydens has been letting and managing properties, we have offered a rent and legal warranty to our clients. You could argue that if the tenant has been professionally referenced, then why do I need a rent and legal warranty? The simple answer to this is that people’s circumstances change. None of us know what is around the corner and the pandemic is probably the best example of this. No-one could foresee Covid, yet this had a major impact on tenants and landlords’ finances. Those landlords who had the rent and legal warranty in place had security that regardless of their tenant’s financial position, their own finances would not be affected as they would be protected by the warranty provided by Boydens. To give you some idea of the extent of that protection, Boydens clients have benefited from £290,000 worth of rental payments in the last couple years. These payments were not made as a result of tenants not wanting to pay their rent, but as a result of not being able to pay their rent whether it be through loss of employment or sickness. Whilst ensuring the landlord is not without their rent, Boydens also works very closely with tenants and solicitors to try and reach a solution where the tenant is not removed from their home and 54 per cent of all claims were closed without the need for recovering possession of the property. Tenancy possession proceedings have never been famed for being the most swift and efficient process for landlords trying to secure possession under a Section 8 notice, and the change to notice periods and ban on evictions throughout the pandemic only added to the length of time it took to secure possession. This could, and has been, very detrimental to many landlords who did not have the protection of a rent and legal warranty, some seeing no rent for over a year and then faced with court fees in the region of £2,500 – and still waiting for possession hearings to be listed at some point in 2022. There is a lot of talk from the Government to reform the possession process, ‘beef up’ possessions under Section 8 and remove the ability to issue a Section 21 possession notice, so we have uncertain times ahead of us. However, with a rent and legal warranty, you can rest assured that your financial position is protected, which is the main reason you were letting your property in the first instance. WHAT DOES THE BOYDENS RENT GUARANTEE SCHEME COVER? • Full rent protection for the total monthly rent, for up to 4 tenants, as named on the tenancy agreement. • Legal costs to obtain possession of the property if the tenant fails to pay the rent. • Total claims limit of £100,000. • Breaches of the tenancy agreement by the tenant including non-payment of rent and expired Section 21 notices. • Court attendance included as part of the service. • Fully transferrable to ensure continuous cover even when the tenants change (subject to satisfactory references). • Nil excess. • Missed rental payments until vacant possession of the property or for up to 15 months, whichever comes first – this is unique in the market. • Cover should a tenant defend the action taken, which means that we’ll continue to pay the claim until the challenge has been resolved. So, the question I ask all landlords is, “Can you a ord not to have a rent guarantee in place in these rather troubling times?” And the answer is always, “No”. To find out more about Boydens’ Rent and Legal Warranty, email [email protected]
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA4ODM=