Rent guarantee is a form of insurance where, for a relatively small annual fee, landlords can protect against loss of rent. Normally, 'Landlord Rent Guarantee Insurance' is combined with 'Legal Assistance Insurance' whereby a landlord's legal costs of recovering rent and/or evicting a non-paying tenant are covered.
According to Bagrat Bayburtian, Vice President of Product Solutions for CoreLogic, there are approximately 2.2 million landlord-tenant court cases filed every year (this does not include those disputes that were negotiated by the landlord and tenant outside of court). With an estimated 40 million rental units across the United States, that means 5.5% of all rental units in the U.S. go through a landlord-tenant court action every year.
Generally, the insurance payout starts only after one month. It is usually a condition of such policies that landlords ensure their tenants are professionally credit-checked before handing over keys. This product was traditionally offered in the UK and has now expanded to the USA with players such as Lloyd's of London backing companies for the last 3 years.
All companies underwriting such policies in the United Kingdom must be registered by the Financial Services Authority.
Rent Guarantee insurance is different from a Guaranteed Rent scheme, which is a service that manages a residential property in return for a fixed portion of the rent. The owner is paid his share, even if the property is empty or tenants default on the rent: in that sense, it functions as a form of insurance.