I want to know the truth about these insurance companies. Are they good to deal with or is it all a rip off?
Iâm now wondering whether very few of these have sold, or whether they will only insure people who are very unlikely to make a claim, or whether the landlord traffic on this site is insignificant.
Well. most people on this site will be sceptics. And even amongst true believers only a small % of cases end up with RGI claims. Itâs like household insurance generally, as a customer you pay for the reassurance and hope never to have to claim partly because you do everything to avoid needing to, and partly as you can be sure insurance companies are quick to take premiums slow and reluctant to accept a claim and will use every fine print excuse not to pay.
So very hard to judge if âworth itâ for any individual LL with 1 or a small number of tenancies
Circa. 600,000-700,000 tenancies end pa. Last year around 11,000 went all the way to eviction by bailiffs. Or 1.8%. Actual proportion of non payers unc those who scarper with 1 month to go and expect it to be claimed from deposit will be higher, letâs say 4% of tenancies that end.
Average private rent in england was 1446pcm in june 2026 or ÂŁ17,000 pa. Cost of rgi plus legal cost insurance c ÂŁ300pa or 1.8%. So if you are no luckier than the average, it would seem to make sense. This of course is a vast over simplification as some tenants more likely to end up in rent arrears than others, and the length in arrears and proportion who get evicted by bailiffs will vary by type of tenant. And you are paying even if the tenancy is good and doesnt end. Nevertheless the cost of RGI is, like other landlord insurances, small compared with the potential costs if things go wrong and you need it. Less than a weekâs rent.
Bit like extractor fan in a bathroom with a window - not legally required, costs to install and maybe replace every few years, but mitigates against risk tenant never opens window esp in winter, causing damp, mould and expensive repairs. Hard to measure cost vs benefit unless you have a large portfolio of such properties some with extractor fans and some withoutâŚ
Good luck
Best
1 Like
What happens when you make a claim on your RGI policy and the claim is accepted? Does the insurance company pay you the rent due every month straight away? Do they take the tenant to court and you have to wait for the outcome? What happens if it goes to court and the judge says that the tenant should pay it off for ÂŁ50 a month? Or that itâs not due because of delapidations?
I want to know how these things work â given that theyâre being pitched as essential in todays world.
@Howard1 erm dont be silly. thereâd be no point in the RGI if you had to wait for insurer to try to get via tenant (or guarantor), which might or might not be successful. The point is to cover your lack of income from no rent. Hence the title "rent guarantee " insurance
(Just like eg income protection insurance- they dont wait till you are back to good health before deciding to pay )
Check each policy but here is an example from alan boswell
" Rent guarantee insurance covers your costs
While landlord legal expenses insurance will assist you in pursuing a defaulting tenant through the courts for unpaid rent, youâll still have no income from your property during this period. With rent guarantee insurance youâll get the equivalent of the monthly rent up to ÂŁ2,500, meaning you can pay your bills and stay in business.
Weâve got your back
If you have a rent guarantee insurance policy in place from Alan Boswell Group, we will actually cover the rent money you are due while your solicitor pursues the tenants for the money they owe. It can be purchased from just ÂŁ195 and will pay out up to a maximum of ÂŁ2,500 in rental income per month.
Our landlord legal expenses cover will also help you with the costs of pursuing a tenant who is in breach of the tenancy agreement. For both of these policies, we offer great value for money, and they really are invaluable should you suddenly find yourself without your rental income.
"
Best
Well Iâll believe it when someone posts here to say that thatâs what actually happened. A user story rather than marketing copy. I have a funny feeling that weâre being sold snake oil.
Well insurance companies have a bad rep generally because people who never claim ofter then wrongly feel theyve wasted their ÂŁ, and those who claim but are rejected are inevitability disappointed if not furious esp because of reputation for weasling out.
You could ask which, who do actual research amongst landlords about their experience of insurers
Eg Best landlord insurance UK 2026 - Which?
If the large insurers genuinely never paid up on RGI, hopefully which would know - they have a large enough membership to pick up on such things. So eg they generally recommend that over long run appliance warranties are not worth it vs cost of one off repairs. But many people still do choose the regular small payment as protects from possible large one off costs.
Looking online i found a few instances of people saying it had paid up eg Reddit
But at least as many (more) sceptical like you
Best
Dont waste your money
I took out the Openrent rent guarantee insurance. What a good idea at a great price i thought. My tenant moved out early while I was abroad, i notified the Guarantee insurance in the given time, I notified them of all the details, i had to jump through so many hoops to claim. 6 months later i am still waiting. It seems if they move out early and donât pay then itâs a completely different matter. They then have to chase the tenant and if they cant find them youâre stuffed, even if youâve told them where they work and that you suspect they are living at the work address. It now only works if they have a 51% chance of getting the money back. You canât speak to Openrent as they are only contactable by messenger on their site, and they just fob you off. Over all a horrible experience. I hope it works better if your tenant is still in the house and doesnât pay.
3 Likes
I note that Rentguard, who are the NLRA supplier, also wonât pay a claim if there is not, in their opinion, a reasonable prospect of success in recovering the arrears. They decide on the prospect of success.
1 Like
Thanks for the anecdote @Gaynor7 . Do you know why Legal for Landlords argued that there was less than â51% chance of getting the money backâ? I know he was no longer at the property â did they try to trace him?
This is from a document Legal for Landlords sent me in January this year. I find it quite hard to understand but Iâm not a lawyer so not used to this sort of thing. Does the box âWhen will I receive paymentâ suggest to you that even if a claim is accepted, the landlord will get no payment until vacant possession?
You have to ask the insurer not me.
It is simply saying that you would be claiming for the period from when rent payments are missed up to the point when the tenant leaves ie the property is vacant. So not after it is vacant. That made perfect sense in the past because if you previously had a 12 fuxed term tenancy the tenancy didnt pay from say month 2 and left in month 5, the insurer has to be clear they are not insuring up to month 12.
It does read as tho they only allowed claims after you have tried mediaton and then issued a notice. In the past that could be a s21 so within a few days of a missed rent payment. Now an section 8 ground 8 notice would be after 3 months of rent arrears tho there is another s8 âdiscretionaryâ ground for any arrears which you could serve sooner. Youâd need to look at whatever their updated policy says but it kind of makes sense they dont want to be getting claims every time a tenant is a few days late and the LL wants to keep the tenant.
It doesnât really say when the payment is made. You have to read the terms and conditions properly as it says. It will depend how quickly you supply all the docs needed, when you actually make the claim, and how long they take to decide and then process it. Exactly like any other insurance claim. They cant tell how long after the arrears you will submit a claim because you will likely try to get tenant to explain and perhaps get back on track first.
But as the point of rgi is exactly to provide something in place of the rent ie guarantee payments when rent isnt received, waiting till after the tenant has left which could be a year later or more (4 months notice for s8 ground 8 then 8 months for application for possession through to eviction by bailiffs) would be no use at all to any landlord looking to cover ongoing mortgage payments. Read the t&c and speak to the broker to confirm claims and payments can be considered and processed before the end of the tenancy ie as soon as arrears arise. Itâs like a holiday insurance claim for emergency cash if your wallet is stolen. You wouldnt expect to wait till the end of your holiday and return home before you could claim it. Nobody would buy such useless cover. But read the t&c
The t&c should tell you how quickly they will take to consider claims once all the documentation has been submitted, and how long they will then take to pay.
I sort of feel like you think I am defending all RGI providers. Iâm sure some cover and providers are better or worse than others and that like all insurance they are quick to take premiums, quick to look for reasons not to pay, and slow to pay out. Like their bad rep. Some may well be so full of holes that they are a waste of ÂŁ. But equally for the cost of less than a weekâs rent pa, maybe its worth it if you are good at documentation. Itâs like paying someone to clean gutters every autumn. It may be a total waste of ÂŁ as without doing it you have no idea what rubbish is filling up the gutter. But if youve ever had expensive water damage due to overflowing gutters you will tend to get it done in case..
Def something to suggest Which do some research into.. not just which insurers provide the most suitable cover, but which actually pay out/how quickly etc
Best
They didnât say they wouldnât chase it, they said they would only chase it if they had more than a 51% chance. I have spoken to the insurer and its because the tenant left, if she had stayed and not paid, then the rent would have been paid out by the insurer and they would have got her out. My case is different, they have been trying to chase her. I donât know how they do that, but i know where she works and have given them all means of communication with her. Its very frustrating, I gave them all the evidence and they accepted that. but they donât now just pay out.
1 Like
Strange. They thought that they wouldnât be able to recover the debt in court because sheâd left. I canât make sense of that at all. Unless theyâd tried to find her and couldnât (maybe sheâd left the country.)
1 Like
âStrange. They thought that they wouldnât be able to recover the debt in court because sheâd left. I canât make sense of that at all. Unless theyâd tried to find her and couldnât (maybe sheâd left the country.)â
or maybe they found tenant had no assets/source of income? If a policy paying out RGI really is dependent on likelihood of being able to get from tenant then it is basically ignores that RGI needed and tenant will often have stopped paying⌠because of lack of income due to change in circumstances and that many tenants have few assets. And therefore seems like a very limited set of circumstances that it will ever pay up. Not really fit for purpose and if not made clear before purchase (and not in tiny fine print) then may have been mis-sold. Iâd be reporting such a policy to which and the authorities (FCA) and trying to get premiums back.
Best
Did they pay any part of the claim?
Iâm trying to understand what happened. They stopped paying the rent. You made a claim straight away. Legal For Landlords went into mediation. After two weeks they came back to you and said that theyâve left the property already and that they wonât be pursuing the rent owing because itâs unlikely a judge will order repayment, or because they canât trace them to take them to court. Is that it?
1 Like