Rent guarantee insurance

Compare rent guarantee insurance for landlords

  • Get a quote in less than 8 minutes

  • Cover for loss of rental income

  • Specifically designed to cover landlord needs

What is rent guarantee insurance?

Rent guarantee insurance is designed to cover your monthly rental income if a tenant doesn’t pay. You might also hear it called rent protection insurance or tenant default insurance.

As part of your landlord insurance policy, you can typically make a claim on rent guarantee insurance if your tenant is more than 30 days behind on rent.

Rent guarantee cover allows you to claim for a fixed amount of time, normally 12 months. Within that time, landlords hope the tenant would have either:

  • Started paying the rent again
  • Left the property of their own accord
  • Been evicted according to the correct eviction procedure

On most rental guarantee insurance policies, you can only make a claim if you’ve served the tenant(s) with a Section 21 or Section 8 notice, formally asking them to move out of the property.

What does landlord rent guarantee insurance cover?

Rent guarantee insurance covers the monthly rental payment if your tenant doesn’t pay. All policies differ, but if you buy through us you get:

  • Up to £50,000, with no monthly rental limit
  • Lost rent for up to 12 months
  • Up to £50,000 towards legal expenses

It's important to note, rent guarantee insurance covers a single tenancy at 1 property. If you manage multiple tenants or have several properties in your portfolio, you need to have a rent guarantee insurance policy for each of them to stay protected.

Because rent guarantee covers the property not the tenant, if you have new tenants move in, you should still be covered. The new tenants need to have passed the usual checks and there needs to be a new tenancy agreement in place for the cover to remain valid.

You can only get tenant default insurance alongside legal expenses insurance when you compare quotes with us. Legal expenses insurance covers:

  • Repossession of the property
  • Eviction of tenants
  • Recovery of rent arrears
  • Access to legal advice

Along with legal expenses cover, you also need to have property owners’ liability insurance when you get landlord rent guarantee insurance.

Property owners’ liability insurance provides cover if a tenant or visitor seeks compensation for injury, or for damage to their possessions, at your rental property. You can choose between £2 million and £5 million of property owners’ liability cover.

Do I need rent guarantee insurance?

Rent guarantee insurance means you don’t lose your rental income. Tenants can fall behind on the rent for various reasons, with negative consequences for both them and their landlord.

If you're renting out a property and your tenant doesn’t pay the rent, it can bring serious financial headaches. You could be relying on the rent for part of your income and you might also have a mortgage in place on the property that needs to be covered.

Non-payment could go on for months with thousands of pounds in rent arrears built up – and any subsequent repossession and eviction proceedings can be drawn out affairs. In these situations, landlords typically find themselves praying that their tenants move out of the property of their own accord well before the process has run its course.

With rental guarantee policies sold through us, you also get your legal expenses covered and access to legal advice should you need to repossess your property and evict the tenants.

Compare rent guarantee insurance quotes

What's not covered by rent guarantee insurance?

There’s certain things that rent guarantee insurance doesn't cover:

  • Commercial properties
  • Selling the property
  • Certain types of tenant, such as students or the unemployed
  • Contract disputes
  • Tenants moving out
  • When you start the policy
  • Tenants in arrears
  • More than one tenancy agreement

Commercial properties, like offices or places of work, aren't covered by rent guarantee insurance. Buf if you select commercial insurance when you get a quote, you can add rental income protection to your policy.

Selling the property means your rent guarantee insurance payments stop. The insurance stops when you put the property on the market, since there isn't any rent that's meant to be coming in.

Certain types of tenant, such as students or the unemployed, are often not covered by rent guarantee insurance as they’re viewed as being at higher risk of defaulting.

Contract disputes might not be included in the cover for legal expenses.

Tenants moving out means the landlord rent guarantee insurance payouts end. This includes if the tenants leave voluntarily or are evicted. You aren't covered while you find a new tenant.

When you start the policy could affect when you can claim. If you got rent guarantee insurance before the tenancy agreement was signed, you’re usually unable to claim on the policy for 90 days. This varies between providers, so check before you buy.

Tenants in arrears isn't covered by rent guarantee insurance. When your tenants fall into arrears, you usually have around 60 days to make a claim on an existing rent guarantee insurance policy. You can't buy a policy to cover an issue that's already happening.

More than one tenancy agreement at a single property won't be covered either. If you have multiple tenant agreements, you need a separate rent guarantee insurance policy for each tenancy to stay covered.

How much is rent guarantee insurance?

The cost of rent guarantee insurance varies depending on certain factors:

  • Your property, including its size and location. Renting property in some areas is viewed as higher risk than others.
  • Your tenants can also impact the price. Some tenants are viewed as higher risk than others.
  • The level of cover you choose. The higher the amount of rent you need to cover, the higher the price is likely to be.

How do I get rent guarantee insurance?

When you get a quote through our site, we refer to rent guarantee insurance as tenant default insurance. We'll ask you to give details about your property, including the:

  • Location
  • Size, including the number of rooms
  • Property type - is it a flat or house for example

We’ll also ask you about the tenants who’ll be living at the property, including whether they’re employed/self-employed, retired or students.

You need to tell us whether you carry out background and identity checks on tenants. You should also tell us if you get independent references and credit checks on tenants or their guarantor.

As well as performing checks on your tenants, you also need to include legal expenses cover to be able to add tenant default insurance to your quote.

You must have obtained satisfactory references for the tenant(s) at the beginning of the tenancy, otherwise your cover may be invalid. It’s also vital that your property is let with an assured shorthold tenancy. If your property is located in Scotland, this should be an assured tenancy.

Compare rent guarantee insurance quotes

Is there an excess on rent guarantee insurance?

There’s no excess to pay on rent guarantee insurance that you buy through us.

Rent guarantee providers often give you a choice of paying a higher price to remove the excess from the policy altogether, so it's worth checking.

Does rent guarantee insurance cover legal disputes with tenants?

Rent guarantee insurance replaces your lost rents, but legal expenses insurance covers legal costs relating to your tenant and the tenancy.

If you buy landlord’s insurance through us, you have to buy legal cover in order to get the rent guarantee policy.

Legal cover can also help cover fees for other tenant-related issues - for example, if the tenant has damaged your property.

Buying legal cover and landlord rent guarantee insurance through us means you also get access to a legal and tax advice helpline. This provides unlimited legal and tax advice on any issue in relation to letting out your property.

What our home insurance expert says

Rent guarantee insurance gives you a safety net if your tenant can’t pay their rent for any reason. But when you get rent guarantee insurance through Confused.com you also have to have legal protection in place. This adds an extra layer of security to protect you from potential legal disputes with your tenants.

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