TDS - ins scheme needs fine tuning

[Simon Dewsberry]

Hi All

At present the ins scheme is nothing short of a rip off in my humble opinion.

As i understand it - you pay a set fee per bond to be protected regardless of for what amount and for what period.

So a small bond of say £300 for a room for 6 months is going to cost the same as a larger bond of say £2000 for a 6 bed house which is being let for 3 years (rolling contract !)

further more to "update" the room bond over 3 years means that you will have to pay 6 times so making it 6 x more expensive to actually insure £1800 which os less than the £2000

Did i misunderstand the system or are we all being taken for a ride here ??!!!!

Surely somewhere along the line we just need a simple indemnity policy to cover (LL) for a maximum amount - as i believe LA do ? with an annual premium ??

Someone put me straight on this please !!

Simon

[Matthew]

Hi Simon,

For me, this is why it just didn't seem worth it as I only rent out on a room by room basis. It would just get so complicated making a claim for communal areas etc, and for the measley amount of 300 pounds, it's gonna cost more than this in time to get the money back.

I've got to admit that I haven't looked at the whole thing in too much detail and we will see with time, but I bet that with all types of schemes the landlord or tenant will be hit with high admin fees, deducted from the amounts being claimed.

Ciao!

[Simon Dewsberry]

Hi Mat

The more i think about this the more wound up i am getting -

Essentially it is an insurance indemnity policy to cover the T from the LL spending or refusing to return the "deposit"

Most professionals have indemnity insurance as a block policy based i'm sure on some kind of limit to th "sum Assured" or "Insured".

Now why do we need to be taking a seperate policy on every single "deposit" creating ridiculous admin and fees ?

does a dentist do this for every patient or a doctor or mechanic or a shop keeper or every customer - NO !

A "block policy" as such is a much more sensible approach and i see no reason why this cannot be done within the TDS rules - as long as policy is set to cover TDS terms.

as for cost of insurance lets have a little looksee :

average car £12k ins ave £400 ? runs at approx 3.3%

average house £160K bldgs & contents ? ins ave £200 runs at approx 0.125%

Health/income protection ins runs at approx 1% of income

my portfolio ins is £2500 on £5mil which is just 0.05%

All of these offer considerably more benefits and extensions of cover in personal injury massive medical and legal cover and lots more besides.

It would appear that we are not charged a % of the "assured" value but are getting a very poor deal especially on the smaller deposits.

I guess the average dep is around £650 and at £40 a pop we are paying 6.1% for what is essentially a shite policy with no benefit to us whatsover. If we must have it then we should have a "simple policy" set at a level to cover portfolio max dep.

Insurers doing BTL ins should be forced to offer this as an integral part of the BTL policy.

Just as my commercail ins covers my building ,stock , public liability, goods in transit, cash on premises, staff injury, loss of profit relocation etc .

Not policies brokrn down for each element - as this would as tds is , be a farce !!

Rant over for now !

let's have your tuppence worth .......................

Simon

[laverda]

Hi have taken on board and agree with a lot of this But what choices do we have CUSTODIAL or INSURANCE sheme which is better ?? not exactly spoilt for choice are we. Cannot opt out as there are severe penalties if you dont comply Big rip off plus lots more paperwork Just have to up the rents to cover all of this i guess. I think this is also so that Big Brother can monitor the Market as they will have a huge data base of rented accomodation and addreses what do you think and any alternative options. Lavy