Rent guarantee insurance

Last updated

Rent guarantee insurance is a form of underwriting through which landlords can be protected against loss of rent if the lessee defaults. Globally, most firms offer this protection through regulated insurance companies, to ensure that the provider can make good on promises of payment. Normally, 'Landlord Rent Guarantee Insurance' is combined with 'Legal Assistance Insurance' whereby a landlord's legal costs of recovering rent and/or evicting a non-paying tenant are covered.

Generally, the insurance payout starts only after one month, which does not always offer landlords adequate protection, thus decreasing the supposed benefits of the coverage. It is usually a condition of such policies that landlords ensure their tenants are professionally credit-checked before handing over keys. This product was traditionally offered in the UK and has now expanded to the United States with players such as Lloyd's of London backing companies for the last 3 years.[ citation needed ]

All companies underwriting such policies in the United Kingdom must be registered by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Rent guarantee insurance is different from a Guaranteed Rent scheme, which is a service that manages a residential property in return for a fixed portion of the rent. The owner is paid his share, even if the property is empty or tenants default on the rent.

See also

Related Research Articles

Insurance Equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another in exchange for payment

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.

Landlord Owner of a rented building, land or real estate

A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant. When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner. The term landlady may be used for the female owners. The manager of a pub in the United Kingdom, strictly speaking a licensed victualler, is referred to as the landlord/lady.

Lease

A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee (user) to pay the lessor (owner) for use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial or business equipment is also leased.

A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a leasehold estate is typically considered personal property.

Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need of real estate to be cared for and monitored, with accountability for and attention its useful life and condition considered. This is much akin to the role of management in any business.

A rental agreement is a contract of rental, usually written, between the owner of a property and a renter who desires to have temporary possession of the property; it is distinguished from a lease, which is more typically for a fixed term. As a minimum, the agreement identifies the parties, the property, the term of the rental, and the amount of rent for the term. The owner of the property may be referred to as the lessor and the renter as the lessee.

Buy-to-let is a British phrase referring to the purchase of a property specifically to let out, that is to rent it out. A buy-to-let mortgage is a mortgage loan specifically designed for this purpose. Buy-to-let properties are usually residential but the term also encompasses student property investments and hotel room investments.

A credit tenant lease is a method of financing real estate. A "credit tenant lease" is a lease from a landlord to a tenant that carries sufficient guarantees that lenders will perceive the rent cash flows from the lease are as reliable as a corporate bond. This typically requires that the tenant have exceptionally good credit, often that the property is essential to the tenant, and contractual obligations that ensure that these rents will be among the tenant's highest obligations. Usually, the lease is structured as a triple net lease, in which a tenant is responsible for insurance, property taxes, and most or all repair and maintenance costs.

Landlord harassment is the willing creation, by a landlord or their agents, of conditions that are uncomfortable for one or more tenants in order to induce willing abandonment of a rental contract. Such a strategy is often sought because it avoids costly legal expenses and potential problems with eviction. This kind of activity is common in regions where rent control laws exist, but which do not allow the direct extension of rent-controlled prices from one tenancy to the subsequent tenancy, thus allowing landlords to set higher prices. Landlord harassment carries specific legal penalties in some jurisdictions, but enforcement can be very difficult or even impossible in many circumstances. However, when a crime is committed in the process and motives similar to those described above are subsequently proven in court, then those motives may be considered an aggravating factor in many jurisdictions, thus subjecting the offender(s) to a stiffer sentence.

Mitchell–Lama Housing Program Housing Program

The Mitchell–Lama Housing Program is a non-subsidy governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York. It was sponsored by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama. It was signed into law in 1955 as The Limited-Profit Housing Companies Act.

In the field of commercial real estate, especially in the United States, a net lease requires the tenant to pay, in addition to rent, some or all of the property expenses that normally would be paid by the property owner. These include expenses such as property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repair, and operations, utilities, and other items. These expenses are often categorized into the "three nets": property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. In US parlance, a lease where all three of these expenses are paid by the tenant is known as a triple net lease, NNN Lease, or triple-N for short and sometimes written NNN.

Under the provisions of the United Kingdom Housing Act 2004 every landlord or letting agent that takes a deposit for an assured shorthold tenancy in England and Wales must protect the deposit under an authorised tenancy deposit scheme. The regulations came into effect on 6 April 2007, and were amended by the Localism Act 2011, taking effect from 6 April 2012. The Deregulation Act 2015 further amended the regulations from 26 March 2015.

A security deposit is a sum of money held in trust either as an initial part-payment in a purchasing process - also known as an earnest payment, or else, in the course of a rental agreement to ensure the property owner against default by the tenant and for the cost of repair in relation to any damage explicitly specified in the lease and that did in fact occur.

Landlords' insurance is an insurance policy that covers a property owner from financial losses connected with rental properties. The policy covers the building, with the option of insuring any contents that belong to the landlord that are inside. Landlords' insurance is often referred to as buy-to-let insurance, however buy-to-let insurance is a type of landlords' insurance. It is important to distinguish between buy-to-let insurance which generally covers one property that has been purchased with a buy-to-let mortgage, and multi-property insurance, which covers two or more properties. Each of these types of landlords' insurance covers different things. Landlord insurance is separate from landlords' emergency cover.

Landlord–tenant law

Landlord–tenant law is a part of the common law that details the rights and duties of landlords and tenants. It includes elements of both real property law and contract law.

In United States real estate business, normally the landlord, rather than the tenant, is responsible for real estate taxes, maintenance, and insurance. In a "net lease" the tenant or lessee is responsible for paying, in addition to base rent, some or all of the recoverable expenses related to real-estate ownership. As the rent collected under a net lease is net of expenses, the base rent tends to be lower than rent charged under a gross lease.

Rent regulation in England and Wales is the part of English land law that creates rights and obligations for tenants and landlords. The main areas of regulation concern,

Retail leasing

A retail lease is a legal document outlining the terms under which one party agrees to rent property from another party. A lease guarantees the lessee use of an asset and guarantees the lessor regular payments from the lessee for a specified number of months or years. Both the lessee and the lessor must uphold the terms of the contract for the lease to remain valid.

A Rent Repayment Order (RRO) is an order in the United Kingdom that allows a tenant or local authority to reclaim rent or housing benefit where a landlord rents out an unlicensed property such as a House in multiple occupation (HMO).

Eviction in the United States

Eviction in the United States refers to the removal of tenants from the location in which they are residing. Within the United States, eviction rates vary heavily by locality. However, historically, there have been trends in domestic eviction patterns during certain time periods such as during the Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic.

References