Landlords. Steadfast can help you not to fall victim to the credit crunch
Steadfast Property Management Ltd, in partnership with HomeLet, the UK’s leading insurance provider for the lettings industry, encourages landlords not to fall victim to the credit crunch by ensuring their rental income is properly protected. Last month the National Landlords Association (NLA) published research showing that 71 per cent of landlords expect rent arrears to increase during 2009.
The research also revealed that 67 per cent of landlords have experienced problems with rent arrears in the past, while 37 per cent are having payment difficulties with current tenants.
Quite some time ago we made a decision at Steadfast to insist that all our prospective tenants are able to pass the referencing required to take out a rent guarantee insurance policy. We offer this as part of our standard service on our Managed Properties and widely available on our Tenant Finder Service. Unlike many other agents this is not as an extra or as part of a tiered fee structure. This is not only excellent news for Landlords but we are also very pleased to say that since we made Rent Guarantee Insurance an essential part of our service we have yet to make a claim! Such is the quality of the tenants we find for our landlords. We would urge landlords to look at what they are getting from their existing letting agent as it is a given that a Letting Agent with suspiciously low fees will not be providing this as we do. You get what you pay for.
The local lettings market is extremely competitive right now and there are many new lettings agents opening up locally. Standards can drop in order to secure a let and this means some agents may cut corners in referencing and the calibre of the tenants. We will not drop our standard purely to secure a let and frankly, it is better to have an empty property than a non paying or bad tenant!
As a HomeLet agent, Steadfast can provide landlords with an outstanding range of tenant referencing, rent guarantee and insurance products designed specifically to safeguard their rental income. Anyone now knows that unemployment has reached the highest level in 11 years and the latest research from the NLA shows many landlords are understandably concerned about the effect the credit crunch is having on their tenants’ ability to pay their rent.
We are delighted to be working with HomeLet, the principal provider of credit referencing and rent guarantee insurance products to the UK lettings market and in our view Homelet provide the best referencing service in the business.
In 2008 HomeLet paid out £2.8 million in rent guarantee claims and anticipate that this figure will continue to rise during the next 12 months as more and more tenants find themselves unable to meet their financial commitments.
At Steadfast, we believe it is now more important than ever for landlords to make an informed decision when choosing a Letting Agent with the ability to put a tenant in your property based on their ability to pay the rent. Steadfast can give our Landlord clients access to HomeLet’s powerful range of tenant referencing and rent guarantee products which offer landlords complete peace of mind.
“There are no restrictions on the types of tenants and their policies cover rental payments for up to a maximum of 12 months and all legal costs incurred in evicting the tenant as a result of non-payment of rent up to a maximum of £50,000, depending on the policy. Landlords no longer have to worry about not receiving their rent or not being able to meet their mortgage payments. If their tenant can’t or won’t pay the rent for whatever reason.
- HomeLet is the UK’s largest tenant referencing, rent guarantee and specialist insurance provider for the lettings industry and offers landlords a wide range of products through its network of almost 5,500 letting agents across the UK.
- HomeLet is a trading name of Barbon Insurance Group Limited.
- Website: www.homelet.co.uk
