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Agent Portal – Code of conduct
An analysis of claims received has highlighted issues within the sales journey and how the products/service are positioned with clients.
With this in mind we have developed some essential guidelines below for our products
- What an agent can do
- What an agent can’t do
- Useful documents
Rent Guarantee purchase conditions
Regulation and your responsibilities
As a Letting Agent under Financial Conduct Authority rules, you are not allowed to sell, arrange, or promote insurance to your clients. Arranging insurance without proper authorisation could lead to enforcement action being taken by the regulators.
Managed properties – You are able to purchase a policy yourself and then provide the benefit to your landlord as part of a rent guarantee service (e.g. rent collection, paperwork, help in the event of a claim etc)
Non-managed properties – Clients can be referred to Alan Boswell Group utilising a unique link to your agency.
Agent guidelines
What an agent can do
- Purchase a rent guarantee policy for a fully managed property (agent provides check in, rent collection etc).
- Purchase policy in the name of the Letting Agent.
- Include a rent guarantee element within their management service.
- Provide literature and content promoting the key points of the cover.
- Purchase cover without having to go through a referencing company (referencing criteria must still be completed).
- Provide pre-approved marketing material.
What an agent can't do
- Use the term “Insurance” in any marketing literature promoting their service. All reference to “Insurance” in any website or marketing documents must be pre-approved by Alan Boswell Group.
- As rent guarantee is simply part of the service you offer and not a product you are selling, there should not be a specific price attributable to rent guarantee. If you have multiple levels of service and one of these is simply the inclusion of a rent guarantee, this might however be unavoidable. Whilst you should avoid this if possible, if it cannot be, please be sensible when it comes to pricing (which applies across the board really).
- Provide policy documents directly to the landlord (see below for documents that can be provided).
- Purchase for non-managed properties (a link can be provided for landlords to purchase direct).
- Under no circumstances should you be referring to your client paying a ‘premium’ – they are not buying insurance, you are.
Communicating with the landlord
Client documents
A fundamental part of adhering to FCA regulations for this product is that no policy documents or schedules or Alan Boswell Group invoices are passed on to the landlord.
We appreciate that this can present a problem so have devised a document called Contract of Guarantee. This document is to be used with landlords to explain the process in more detail and how it works as part of your service.
This is an important document as it makes clear to the landlord the benefit they are receiving is an extension to the service that you offer, and it is separate to and distinct from the rent guarantee insurance that you buy from us.
The contract of guarantee document that follows also makes it clear that any rental defaults will be individually reviewed by you as their agent, and that you will discuss available options with them if the tenant were to fall into and remain in arrears.
The guarantee has to be a relatively small part of the overall service that you provide and your clients need to be able to use your services without having to take the guarantee.
Charging the landlord
You must ensure that any charge needs to form part of your managed service charge and is subject to VAT, there cannot be a direct cost to the landlord for the insurance.
Such a charge may be levied as follows :-
- An increased Management Service % ( i.e 10% for our standard service or 12% for our increased management service including rent guarantee)
- A monthly charge of £XX a month for our Rent Guarantee service
- An annual charge of £XX for our Rent Guarantee service
Largely driven by market forces, the costs for the added benefit of having the guarantee needs to be proportionate and reasonable.
Renewing the Guarantee
You can only renew the guarantee if you are still fully managing the property and you are not aware of any changes to the tenants financial situation that may lead to them no longer being able to meet their monthly rental obligations.
Compliance with guidelines
Failure to adhere to the above guidelines may result in access to Alan Boswell Group products being removed and commission share arrangements being terminated.
Claims may also be invalidated if the above process has not been followed.
If in doubt please contact us. We deal with tens of thousands of properties so have encountered many different scenarios. We are there to handhold through the purchase process and welcome questions. Some queries in the past have helped us develop the proposition positively and widen the cover so we encourage questions.