These terms are for landlord customers receiving rent protection on our Essential and Complete plans. They form part of our wider Terms of Business and should be read alongside applicable letting plan terms, website and platform terms, user terms and privacy policy.
In addition to LetsProtect, the Essential and Complete plans include rent protection. Rent protection ensures that subject to these terms and our wider Terms of Business, lettingaproperty.com will pay you the monthly rent shown in the tenancy agreement in lieu of non-payment of rent from your tenant.
Limits of indemnity
Essential plan
The monthly rent shown in the tenancy agreement up to a maximum of £2,500 per month with the maximum liability of rent protection payable under the Essential plan being £10,000 or 6 months’ rent, whichever is the lesser amount.
Complete plan
The monthly rent shown in the tenancy agreement up to a maximum of £2,500 per month with the maximum liability of rent protection payable under the Complete and Complete Plus plans being £15,000 or 12 months’ rent, whichever is the lesser amount.
The payments will be made to the maximum length of time specified above, or until the landlord gains possession of the property - whichever is sooner.
For the avoidance of any doubt, the property is considered back in the landlord’s possession once the tenants have surrendered the tenancy and left the property.
Rent arrears due from the tenant under the tenancy agreement are covered under rent protection. If you decide to intervene and negotiate a payment plan with your tenant without prior consent in writing from lettingaproperty.com, you will not receive rent protection benefits.
Complete plan rent protection process
If your rent payment is not paid or partially paid by your tenant on the due date, we will inform both you and your tenant that payment has not been received. If the tenant subsequently pays the rent or remaining rent, this will be sent to you, minus any funds or fees owed to us. Fees are payable in full on first payment of rent if partial rent received.
One month unpaid
If the rent has still not been paid by the tenant and we have confirmed that the tenant is still in possession of your property, we will initiate a payment for this one month's rent - referred to below as a 'rent protection payment' - to you within five business days. It may then take a further three days for monies to be received, to account for BACS payment processing.
Two months unpaid
After the first initial rent protection payment, any further rent protection payments will be initiated within five business days upon written confirmation of the following:
- The tenant still occupies the property
- No rent payment has been received directly
- No other arrangements have been made between you and the tenant
- You sign a Section 8 or applicable notice to gain possession of your property from your tenant
If your tenant is in two full months of rent arrears, we will inform both you and your tenant and draw up a Section 8 notice with the relevant grounds for eviction. You will be asked to sign this notice and we will send it to your tenant.
Once the notice is signed, we will pay your second month's rent protection payment. Continued payments will be made up to the maximum payment specified in the letting plan, or until the tenant fully pays off their arrears or gives up possession of the property - whichever is sooner.
Essential plan rent protection process
If your rent payment is not paid or partially paid by your tenant on the due date, we will inform both you and your tenant that payment has not been received. If the tenant subsequently pays the rent or remaining rent, this will be sent to you, minus any funds or fees owed to us. Fees are payable in full on first payment of rent if partial rent received.
One month unpaid
If the rent has not been paid by the tenant and you have confirmed that the tenant is still in possession of your property, we will continue to send notices of payment requests according to legal guidance and will alert our legal team if no rent has been received by the end of the first 30 days of non-payment.
Two months unpaid
If a subsequent rent payment (two months) has not been paid by the tenant and you have confirmed that the tenant is still in possession of your property, we will make a rent protection payment equal to one month’s rent within five business days upon confirmation in writing of the following:
- The tenant still occupies the property
- No rent payment has been received directly
- No other arrangements have been made between you and the tenant
- You sign a Section 8 or applicable notice to gain possession of your property from your tenant
If your tenant is in two full months of rent arrears, we will inform both you and your tenant and draw up a Section 8 notice with the relevant grounds for eviction. You will be asked to sign this notice and we will send it to your tenant.
Once the notice is signed, we will pay your second month's rent protection payment. Continued payments will be made up to the maximum payment specified in the letting plan, or until the tenant fully pays off their arrears or gives up possession of the property - whichever is sooner.
Serving notice and gaining possession
For rent protection payments to be made, we will require your signature and permission to issue and serve statutory and contractual notices 31 days from the first non-payment of rent.
A Section 8 notice and accompanying Form 3 will be used to gain possession of properties let under an assured tenancy, an assured agricultural occupancy or an assured shorthold tenancy under one of the grounds in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988
Where vacant possession is secured, in accordance with the tenancy agreement, any upcoming rent protection payments will be calculated on a pro-rata basis. Rent protection will end once vacant possession has been gained.
Costs and excess
Where applicable, the tenancy deposit amount and any unpaid subscription fees due will be deducted by lettingaproperty.com from the tenancy deposit.
If there are proven dilapidations in excess of £500.00, damage costs must be claimed through the LetsProtect cover if there are not any sufficient deposit monies after lettingaproperty.com costs.
If a professional inventory, carried out by an accredited clerk, is not carried out at the end of the tenancy to prove such damages, and rent is owed by the tenant and already paid in advance to the landlord, lettingaproperty.com will deduct the full deposit amount as non-payment of rent.
If any outstanding rent is owed by the tenant and we have already paid your rent in advance, we will claim a deduction from the tenancy deposit for any outstanding rent before other repayments, such as damages, are considered.
If you have received any overpayments of rent, we reserve the right to recover this from you.
If lettingaproperty.com enforce a Rent Recovery Judgement against the tenant and you have been covered by our Rent Protection and paid in advance, this rent debt is payable back to lettingaproperty.com by your instruction via our solicitors from the court.
By instructing lettingaproperty.com, you agree that in the event you receive rent protection payments, your rights to recover funds from the tenant shall be passed onto us. Any balance of recovery will be paid to you after all costs relating to court fees, possession and debt proceedings, and rent recovery have been deducted.
Other information
If your tenant falls into and remains in rent arrears, we have the right to discuss all options and procedures with you. Failure to comply with our request to discuss these matters will cancel your rent protection benefit.
Within the policy period, if there are any defaults of the monthly rent, payments may be made monthly, in arrears. There are certain conditions that need to be met that can be discussed in this situation.
Payments made under rent protection are subject to us being able to begin a claim with our legal cover and begin the process of eviction. If you do not give your approval in writing for this claim to be submitted, your rent protection will be void.
If you give permission for us to submit a claim for eviction but then decide not to proceed with eviction, any rent protection payments made by us to you must be repaid in full.
If rent protection payments are made, you will be required to give permission for possession and/or rent proceeding to be made in your name or ours against the tenant.
In the event of a counterclaim by the tenant, all payments under rent protection will be held back until the court order that rent was lawfully due. You will be required to fully fund the legal action to defend a counterclaim and we shall not be liable for any costs of proceedings or subsequent court orders.
Excess
If any outstanding rent is owed by the tenant and we have already paid your rent in advance, we will claim a deduction from the tenancy deposit for any outstanding rent before other repayments, such as damages, are considered.