I won’t rent my house out without a Rent Guarantee, it just won’t happen. I’ve got a mortgage to pay and if the rent stops coming in I’ll have a problem.
You can reference your tenants until the cows come home but things change and bad things happen to good people. I always say that we’re all just a P45 away from not being able to pay the bills. But if bad things happen to my tenants then I want to make sure I’ll still get the rent.
Over the years I’ve met a lot of landlords who have been affected by arrears. For some it’s a calculated risk, they rent to a particular sector where the risk of arrears and damages are higher but overall they come out on top. For others the impact both financially and emotionally can be huge.
Earlier this week I met with a landlord who fell into the latter category and below is a summary of her situation. In ‘The pain caused by arrears (Part 2)’ there’s a brief story of another completely different landlord experience.
If you’re about to rent out a property please give a lot of thought as to how you will protect your rental income, just in case.
Edith’s story………
About eighteen months ago I got a call from a lady called Edith asking for advice about her tenant who had fallen into arrears. I’ve probably spoken to her six times in total and each time she’s sounded slightly more desperate. Yesterday, though she came in to say ‘Hello’.
I knew it had to be good news and it was, Edith had finally served her tenant notice – yay! But…… she knew it could still take a few months to go through the courts and get her property back. Her tenant however, had made her an offer and she wasn’t sure if she should accept it so she wanted my opinion.
Now this I had to hear………. See more
