Letting agent arrange LE and RG??

[vg4]

hi, am a newbie to letting and this site so pls excuse my ignorance.

i have appointed a letting agent to manage my property while i go overseas for a year.

he suggested that i organise the contents and public liability insurance while he would do the legal and rent guarantee.

my questions are,

1. is this normal??
2. wouldnt i get a better price if i did them all together myself? and
3. if he did arrange it would it be in my name or his?

any help or thoughts greatly appreciated.

many thks!!

[Amanda]

Hi,

I work as a letting agent, and usually we request that the tenants obtain their own contents insurance with accidental damage for landlords fixtures & fittings and provide proof of this to us prior to occupation.
I'm not sure you need public liability as its not a public space and is therefore not applicable.
The rent and legal guarantee is something he probably arranges through the referencing company they use, and is paid a fee for arranging it (which is why he is happy to arrange for you!)It would be in your name.

Personally, i would only bother with the rent and legal and get the tenants to sort out contents. Request a copy of the certificate if you want to make sure they have it.

[vg4]

hihi, thanks for the repsonse.

was under the impression that i had to have public liability in case someone tripped on the carpet or got hit by a falling tile etc while it was rent.

i'll look inot it again, thks!

[Jonboy]

a buildings insurance policy for the property should include landlord liability, personally i use landlord insurance direct - the policy includes 2 million liability as standard.

also check the price of the rent gurantee product they are selling you - as Amanda says they are getting a commission - unfortunately this often means they care less about the value you get and more about their kick back! a years RG+LE should be no more than 99.00! i have seen it as high as 3 % of the rent!!

i am actually surprised they are not trying to flog you the whole lot!

[vg4]

i thought the same, its obviouis they are getting a kickback!

thats why i thought i would rather sort out the whole lot myself, feel better trusting my instincts than trusting my letting agent! plus i have a financial incentive to get the best price/deal .

i spoke to landlordinsurancedirect, they seem a good bunch. hopefully gonna use them.

one more question though, if they arrange the LE and RG i assume they need to approve the tenant, do i also normally have to pay them to do another tenant check or do they accept the ones my letting agent does?

[Jonboy]

you would need to ask them, they do accept certain companies for referencing, they do not do it themselves though. for professional tenants i think we just check to make sure they are clear of ccj's and do an employment check, plus 2 forms of id.

they are a good bunch i reccomend them to all my clients, and have had 100% positive feedback so far

[vg4]

great, thks for your help

[Markonee1]

...also check the price of the rent gurantee product they are selling you - as Amanda says they are getting a commission - unfortunately this often means they care less about the value you get and more about their kick back! a years RG+LE should be no more than 99.00! i have seen it as high as 3 % of the rent!!

i am actually surprised they are not trying to flog you the whole lot!

Jonboy (or anyone) could you please tell me what the last few years premiums have been for Rent Guarantee? I would like to go back as far as the year 2000 ideally.
I must appologise for my sudden frantic posting...
The reason is that on 19th May; I issued a notice that I claimed was under Part 1 Section 12 of Landlord & Tenant act 1987 for the Right of First Refusal. The usual deaf ear response means that that notice may be expireing this week. To make my claim less ignorable I'd like to claim for inapropriate insurance in that RG not neccessary for £7.50 annual groundrent!
Thanks
Mark

[cknight@leaseguard.co.uk]

I would recommend a RG & LE policy for landlords where they need the mortgage to be paid from the tenant's rent, where they are inexperienced or not using a letting agent.

We offer this policy at 2.6% of Annual rent for 12 months cover up to £25,000
The tenant needs to be successfully referenced, but we will accept references from our competitors, we don't insist you use our Referencing Services.

In respect of Public or Property Owners liability this is also to be recommended irrespective of if the property is rented-out as you may get sued by anyone from the postman slipping on the path in the snow to a visitor or letting agent falling down the stairs where the carpet has become loose. Most standard Buildings Insurance policies should have an element of this cover. Our Buildings Insurance provides £2m Property Owners Liability.

If you have contents within the property, for example carpets, curtains, white goods etc. you may wish to consider Landlords Contents insurance. Think about including Accidental Damage cover as tenants tend not to be as careful about someone else's property. Tenants should have insurance for their own contents and possessions, including some liability cover. Some landords and letting agents insist on this cover being in place before they will release the keys.

Try us for a quote at www.leaseguard.co.uk