Landlords who rent their properties via letting agents can now access a rental deposit ‘top up’ product.
Launched today by Flatfair, it is designed to help landlords who have realised – often expensively – that the recently-introduced five-week cap on deposits is not enough if a tenant significantly damages a property.
Called Boost, it is only available via lettings agencies within the company’s partner network.
As well as offering greater financial protection against property damage, Flatfair claims Boost offers faster dispute resolution than the government-approved deposit protection schemes.
The new service costs 1.5% of the monthly rent plus VAT and offers landlords additional protection to a value of six weeks’ worth of rent.
It is available on top of both a traditional rental deposit and Flatfair’s ‘no deposit’ service as well.
“Our product launch is timely because I think a lot of landlords have had their fingers burned over the past six months and have realised that five week’s rent protection isn’t enough,” says Flatfair CEO Franz Doer (left).
“The six weeks’ of rent protection that the landlord buys with Boost covers anything but rent arrears, so we believe this then frees up landlords to allocate the traditional cash deposit to cover any rent arrears that may have built up.”
Doer says he is expecting to see rent arrears increasing as the economic problems caused by Covid are felt, and that approximately 5% of the tenants covered by its service are currently behind in their rent.
He also says the pandemic is forcing tenants to spend longer in their properties – and that therefore wear and tear and damage are likely to increase too.
Read more about the deposit protection ‘revolution’.
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