Landlords should protect their investment property against inevitable rises in unemployment before it’s too late, say Homelet. They state that the release of the latest unemployment figures indicates that difficult times continue to loom for the UK economy, potentially affecting thousands of private landlords.

Whilst the overall unemployment figure dropped slightly in the three months to July, the number of people out of work and claiming benefits actually rose by 2,300 in August according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Economists now fear that the UK’s labour market will be unable to sustain the inevitable government cuts which are due later in the year. There is renewed concern that previously safe jobs in the public sector will be slashed under next months spending review, meaning that even those in what were once considered stable jobs could find themselves out of work in the months to come.

In these difficult times HomeLet is urging landlords to consider safeguarding their rental income against their tenants becoming unemployed and unable to meet their rental payments, and to consider purchasing a rent protection insurance policy.

It has found that more tenants are now seeing their rented property as a home, rather than a stop gap, and average tenancies are now getting longer. This has led to there being less homes available for rent, but with more people looking for somewhere to live, in some towns and cities there can be six prospective tenants competing for each property. So landlords, it seems, can afford to be choosy when selecting a tenant. However, the company suggest that landlords to look beyond the reference and make steps to protect their rent as a reference is merely a view on how a tenant has behaved in the past, and it can’t predict how they will behave in the future.