In today’s economic climate
most landlord’s agree that it makes sense to carry out some background checks
on prospective tenants before handing over the keys – with many using letting
agents with access to professional tenant vetting companies to do the job for
them because they have access and can give information about credit history and
debt. But many landlords and letting agents don’t know is that every 5 min 12
sec someone is declared insolvent or bankrupt in the UK, and over 1,900 County
Court Judgements are now issued every day. These figures include tenants, and
beg the question how does a landlord or letting agent keep track of tenants
that are falling into financial difficulty after they’ve moved in?
Martin & Co Exeter believes
they’ve found the answer to making their tenant background checks more than
just a snapshot in time. Working with The Landlord Hub, they have access to a
product that not only carries out full comprehensive checks on income, rental
history and credit run at the outset, but also monitors the tenant’s credit
record throughout the tenancy term and alerts them to any changes – something
that up until now hasn’t been possible with other providers.
Martin & Co Exeter said
‘Every month we’re provided with an update on any tenants that have had new
detrimental credit information about them – these are tenants who have
previously passed referencing checks, but you can’t predict the future and it
helps us and our landlords to be informed. We find that most letting agents
offer referencing as a ‘snap-shot’ in time – but we wanted to offer more than
that. We’ve seen a huge increase in the numbers of tenants entering into IVA’s
or being registered with CCJ’s or Bankruptcies over the last 12 months. So we
want to ensure that our landlords have a ‘snap-shot’ that constantly updates itself
– in some cases it’s an early warning of potential problems’.
An early warning sounds like a
sensible idea, especially given that the number of tenant evictions in England
and Wales are also reaching record highs. Last year alone 37,739 eviction court
cases went the full distance to requiring a bailiff to remove the tenant.
Luckily, Martin & Co Exeter
also provide Free Eviction cover for landlords, should tenants default on
rental payments, to ensure that landlords can gain possession of their property
again as soon as possible.
Chris from Martin & Co
Exeter said ‘Free Eviction is a great feature of our service – along with Tenant
Monitor it means we’ve got all bases covered for our landlords. It’s great to
be able to provide solutions that really help - when we’re talking to our
landlords we can assure them that if there is a problem tenant that won’t pay,
we can get them out of their property with no additional costs for them – it’s
why so many landlords trust us, because one of a landlord’s biggest worries is
having a tenant who won’t leave – especially when the average cost of a tenant
eviction currently sits at approximately £1, 650’.
With such robust offerings like
Tenant Monitor and Free Eviction available, it made sense for Martin & Co
to offer an equally attractive rent protection product to complement their
offering. In late 2014, they launched their Rent and Legal Protection – an
innovative and high quality product that a landlord can register an interest in
that has competitive pricing and easy administration.
Many other products on the
market will only cover the landlord if the tenant fails to pay rent whereas Martin
& Co’s Rent and Legal Protection covers many other aspects, in fact cover
includes:
·
repossession to
gain possession of the property from the tenant, legal assistance up to £75,000
·
payment of rent
arrears for an UNLIMITED time whilst the tenant still occupies the property,
upto a maximum of £75, 000
·
Nil excess
·
75% of rent paid
for up to 2 months after vacant possession if property is damaged and needs
repairing and is therefore not able to be re-let.
·
Any breach of
tenancy, now including anti-social behaviour
·
Eviction of
squatters
·
Legal assistance
for defended actions
·
Rents upto £8,000
and 6 or 12 month options
All of these elements make sure
that Martin & Co customers are provided with the highest level of
protection from a unique market leading package.
For more information on Tenant
Monitor or Free Eviction or Rent and Legal Protection from Martin & Co
Exeter, contact 01392 254488 or email exetersales@martinco.com.
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