For claims resolved through mediation, the average is 15 days. Where legal action is required, the average is 5 months. The national average currently (based on the latest Ministry of Justice statistics) is around 8–9 months.

Claims are currently validated within an average of 4 working days, which is down by over 100% in recent months.

Once a payment can be made, the payment request is assessed in under 2 working days (90%+ of the time), and payment is made within 1 working day in 88% of cases - meaning most payments are received within 3 working days of reaching the payment stage.

Claims should be submitted within 45 days of the first missed payment to benefit from nil excess. Claims submitted up to 90 days will still be accepted, but a one month's rent excess will apply. For legal-only claims (non-arrears), the submission window is 180 days from the event.

Rent can increase by up to 5% per year beyond the tenant's confirmed affordability threshold, up to a cumulative maximum of 20%. If a rent increase exceeds these limits, any claim will be paid based on the covered amount only (5% annual / 20% cumulative). Where the cumulative increase exceeds 20%, a re-reference of the tenant will be required to maintain full cover.

Outstanding arrears are still paid to the letting agent to pass on to the landlord. Any settlement agreed will ensure the landlord is not left out of pocket. The cost of covering the arrears is offset by the saving made in avoiding full legal proceedings.

If a claim appears to have been in mediation longer than expected, this may be due to the claim sitting with a legacy insurer, arrears falling below the mandatory possession threshold, or a tenant settlement date still being pending. If you have concerns about the progress of a specific claim, please use the Webform to raise a query with the Claims team who can review this for you.

The increased complexity of legislation means more documentation is required upfront to ensure solicitors can act quickly and progress claims without delay. Goodlord is actively working to pull existing referencing data directly into the claim form, with a 10–15% improvement already achieved and further improvements being rolled out quarterly.

Yes, where the claim is on the basis of rent arrears, the Section 8 is served by Goodlord as part of the mediation process and is covered under the policy premium.

Yes, a ticket should currently be submitted each time the rent is increased, as this constitutes a change of risk on the policy. We are working to automate this process, as the relevant data already exists within the Goodlord platform.