I’m new to being a landlord and couldn’t find a clear answer to this on the community.
I have prospective tenants who have paid the holding deposit, and their referencing is currently in progress. I’m still waiting for the full referencing report, but the initial information has raised a few questions regarding their income, which doesn’t appear to match the figure that was originally shown during the OpenRent verification.
Assuming the full referencing report is satisfactory, I would like to take out Rent Guarantee Insurance.
My understanding is that the insurer will only provide cover if the tenants meet their eligibility criteria.
My question is: what is the correct order of events?
Do I first review the referencing, agree to proceed with the tenants, sign the tenancy agreement, and then apply for the Rent Guarantee Insurance?
Or should I obtain confirmation from the insurer that they are willing to provide cover before I commit to the tenancy?
I’d appreciate hearing how other landlords have handled this, particularly if you’ve used OpenRent and Rent Guarantee Insurance together.
If getting RGI is important to you, then make sure it’s available for the tenants before you offer/send a draft contract or sign a contract. You don’t have to use Openrent for RGI, it may well be an add on for your landlord insurance
As you have already got discrepancies between what they initially claimed their income was you may not want to go ahead anyway
Bear in mind RGI offered through OR isn’t supplied by OR and the insurer may not consider OR referencing ok and may refuse claims as a result see eg
I’m planning to self-manage the property through OpenRent, but I definitely want Rent Guarantee Insurance in place before committing to a tenant.
I’m still deciding which provider to use – it could be OpenRent’s own policy, or a standalone provider such as Business Wise, Rightmove, Goodlord or another insurer.
Could you advise on the usual process? At what stage do you normally arrange the insurance, and what information does the insurer typically require before they’ll issue cover?
For example, do they simply rely on the referencing report, or do they also require the tenancy agreement, proof of income, Right to Rent checks, inventory, or anything else before the policy becomes active?
If anyone has gone through this process using OpenRent (or another self-managed route), I’d really appreciate hearing how it worked in practice and whether there are any pitfalls to avoid.
Openrent do not have “their own policy”, they resell Legalforlandords’ policy.
My advice to you is to buy your referencing from the same supplier as your RPI. That means, you do not use openrent’s referencing. And when you receive the references discusss in detail how to proceed with the RPI provider.
These things are complex. Proceed cautiously.
RPI companies will sell to anyone. They will check that you have met the conditions of sale only when you claim, and reject your claim if you haven’t. So, for example, if you don’t have a signed professional inventory, or you have made someone a tenant who does not have a satisfactory reference, then they may simply say no to your claim, while pocketing your premium.
Every policy will be different you need to check the specific requirements from each different insurer. They wont be necessarily be interested in seeing each tenants particular proof of income (tenants change after all) but more that you have obtained it, and can produce in the event of a claim
For example here are the requirements from Alan Boswell (they do say check policy wording and you could call too if unsure ), so they wont ask for all the documentation (issuing of gsr tenancy agreement etc) to provide cover but you will need it for a claim. Makes sense as otherwise you could only get cover after tenants have been served docs which historically when using paper copies not email wouldnt have been till tenants had moved in