Lighthouse Property Services Extends its Rent Guarantee Cover

Lighthouse Property Services, residential and student lettings agent located in Lincoln, have included a 12-months’ rent guarantee insurance into their standard package of private rental sector in an effort to safeguard its landlord-clients.
The change that was made by the letting agent has caused a large number of reports on tenant arrears to appear.
Prior to the change in the policy, Lighthouse offered all landlords, who were concluding new tenancy agreements, a 6-months’ Advantage Rent Guarantee, which was provided by HomeLet, an insurance and tenant referencing provider. The rent guarantee could have been extended to 12 months for an additional fee of £90.
Simon Sewell, Private Lettings Manager at Lighthouse said that the new policy of the company now includes a full year of Advantage Rent Guarantee for landlords, who start a new tenancy agreement. He added that this extension allows the company to provide its private sector landlords with high quality services and protection at competitive rates. He claimed that Lighthouse experts are determined that an adequate protection policy is very important for all landlords because even the best tenants can default on their rent due to the unstable economic circumstances, such as redundancy.
According to the data presented by HomeLet, rent guarantee claims increased by 20% in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same period last year. January saw the biggest increase of 43%.
The figures published in March by the National Landlords Association (NLA) revealed that currently 37% of landlords have tenants in arrears.
Advantage Rent Guarantee, which is offered by Lighthouse, consists of a comprehensive credit and affordability check, financial and residential references, as well as of a Rent Guarantee cover that has no excess.
The Advantage Rent Guarantee not only covers all rental payments for 12 months, it also covers all legal expenses that might be associated with the process of tenant eviction, which resulted in non-payment of rent. The latter is limited to £50,000.
John Boyle, Managing Director at HomeLet said that the company is delighted at Lighthouse’s support for landlords, especially given the increased number of tenants who are defaulting on their payments. He added that in 2008 the company paid out a total of £2.8 million in landlords’ claims, associated with Rent Guarantee.