Rent guarantor companies: what the reviews actually say
Short answer: As of 20 October 2026, Trustpilot scores for the main UK rent guarantor companies still taking reviews run from 3.3 (Housing Hand) to 4.6 (RentGuarantor.com). The score tells you less than the pattern underneath it. Praise is mostly about fast applications. Complaints are mostly about refunds, cancellations and getting a reply. Read the guarantee wording, not the stars.
A guarantor company signs as the tenant's guarantor for a fee. If rent goes unpaid, it pays the landlord and then recovers the money from the tenant. We compared what each one charges in our guarantor cost comparison, and took Housing Hand's pricing and co-signer apart in a separate piece. This article is about the other half: what tenants and landlords report, and how claims are handled.
The question matters more than it did. Since 1 May 2026, a new private tenancy can no longer make rent due in advance, apart from the initial rent (section 4B of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by section 8 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025), and rent paid before the tenancy is entered into is a prohibited payment (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1, paragraph 1(1A)). The old route of paying six months up front is closed. For a tenant with no UK guarantor, a guarantor company is often what is left.
What are the Trustpilot ratings for UK rent guarantor companies?
All figures were read from each company's UK Trustpilot page on 20 October 2026. They move daily.
| Provider | TrustScore | Total reviews | Reviews in last 12 months | 1-star share | What the profile mostly covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RentGuarantor.com | 4.6 | 490 | 130 | 9% | The guarantor service |
| Housing Hand | 3.3 | 1,740 | 130 | 15% | The guarantor service |
| UK Guarantor (now part of Housing Hand) | 4.8 | 59 | 0 | 0% | The guarantor service; newest review January 2020 |
| Goodlord | 4.4 | 45,038 | 2,169 | 5% | The whole rental platform, mainly referencing and move-in |
| Zero Deposit | 4.5 | 6,870 | 1,054 | 8% | Mainly the deposit-replacement product |
| Homeppl | 3.5 | 735 | 62 | 14% | Mainly tenant referencing |
Three things to notice before you read the stars.
Only two profiles are really about a guarantee. Goodlord, Zero Deposit and Homeppl sell several products, and their reviews are dominated by referencing and deposit replacement. Their high scores say little about how a guarantee claim is handled.
How reviews are collected changes the score. Trustpilot marks Goodlord and Zero Deposit as inviting customers to review. Housing Hand, RentGuarantor.com, UK Guarantor and Homeppl are marked as having no recent history of asking, with a warning that their reviews may not be representative. A profile built on unprompted reviews tends to hear from people with a problem. Compare like with like.
Old reviews are old. UK Guarantor's 4.8 rests on 59 reviews, none in the last year.
What do tenants complain about, and what do they praise?
We summarise the themes in the most recent reviews. These are reviewers' accounts; we have not tested them.
- Praise is mostly about speed and people. Across the profiles, positive reviews describe quick applications and name individual staff who helped.
- Refunds after a let falls through. A repeated complaint on the guarantor-specific profiles. Reviewers describe refunds stalling after a rejection or a cancelled move.
- Payments after leaving. Some Housing Hand reviewers say monthly payments continued after their tenancy ended. Housing Hand publishes a twelve-payment rule, which we covered in our Housing Hand article. Read that rule before signing.
- Getting a reply. Slow email, hard-to-reach phone lines and chatbots come up on several profiles. Homeppl's reviewers mostly describe document uploads rejected repeatedly during referencing.
- Claims, from the landlord's side. A few landlord reviews appear. On RentGuarantor.com's page, one landlord and one agent praise the claims and legal process. On Zero Deposit's page, a recent landlord review describes a claim closed after a response deadline passed, and disputes it.
Reply rates differ too. Housing Hand and RentGuarantor.com show replies to 100% of negative reviews, Zero Deposit 90%, Homeppl 56% and Goodlord 32%.
How do guarantor companies pay landlords' claims?
Reviews rarely show this. Here is what each provider publishes, checked on 20 October 2026.
- Housing Hand: the landlord or agent invoices within 30 days of the missed payment. Valid claims are paid within 28 to 35 days of validation, and the guarantee covers tenant liabilities under the tenancy agreement. The tenant must then repay the full amount. Late fees may apply, the co-signer may be contacted, and missed repayments can affect the tenant's credit rating.
- RentGuarantor.com: rent covered up to £120,000 or 12 months' rent, whichever comes first, plus damage up to two months' rent and eviction legal costs, subject to terms. No claim steps or payment times are published on its landlord page.
- Zero Deposit Guarantor+: up to 12 months of the tenant's share of the rent, capped at £130,000, plus £10,000 for legal expenses. Each guarantee runs 12 months, renewed annually for up to three years of cover. No claims timetable is published on the product page.
- Goodlord Guarantor: the tenant-facing page sets out the fee but not the claims process.
- Homeppl: now trades as part of Thirdfort and lists a "Guarantees" product, but its guarantee pages returned "not found" when we checked.
Zero Deposit says it is authorised by the FCA as an insurance intermediary (reference 797026). Goodlord's footer says Oh Goodlord Limited is an appointed representative of Goodlord Protect Limited (FCA reference 836727). Those are the firms' own statements. The FCA register would not load for us on 20 October 2026, so check it yourself at register.fca.org.uk.
What should a landlord check in the guarantee wording?
Ask for the guarantee document, not the product page, and check six things.
- Who is the guarantor? The legal entity and its company number, not the brand.
- The cap. A money cap and a months cap. Find out which bites first.
- Share or whole tenancy. On a joint tenancy, is it one tenant's share or the full rent?
- What is covered. Rent only, or damage and legal costs too.
- The claim clock. The deadline to notify, the evidence needed, and the payment time after validation. Housing Hand's 30-day invoice window is the kind of term a busy landlord misses.
- What happens at twelve months. Since 1 May 2026, a new private assured tenancy is periodic (section 4A of the Housing Act 1988). A periodic tenancy has no end date; a twelve-month guarantee does. Ask what happens if it is not renewed.
One difference from a family guarantor. Section 16N of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by section 19 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, ends an individual guarantor's liability for rent after the tenant's death, for guarantees of an assured tenancy entered into since 1 May 2026. It applies where "an individual" gives the guarantee. A company guarantee is a different arrangement, so read its own terms on death and termination.
Can a landlord insist on a particular guarantor company?
No. Under section 1(3) of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a landlord must not require a tenant to enter a contract with a third party for a service or insurance. Offering one as an alternative to a personal guarantor is allowed (section 1(7)), provided that other requirement is itself lawful and reasonable (section 1(8)).
We use Goodlord for referencing on most of our lettings and have built one Goodlord Guarantor pathway for student tenancies. We do not require anyone to use it. We won't rate a guarantor company on its stars, and we won't steer a tenant to one we have a pathway with when another fits them better. The full provider comparison is on our guarantor services page.
Sources
- Trustpilot UK profiles, all read 20 October 2026: Housing Hand https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/housinghand.co.uk · RentGuarantor.com https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/rentguarantor.com · UK Guarantor https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ukguarantor.com · Goodlord https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/goodlord.co · Zero Deposit https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/zerodeposit.com · Homeppl https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/homeppl.com
- Housing Hand, defaults: https://housinghand.com/help-and-advice/what-happens-if-a-tenant-defaults-on-their-tenancy-agreement
- Housing Hand, missed rent payments: https://housinghand.com/help-and-advice/what-happens-with-missed-rent-payments
- Housing Hand, refund policy: https://housinghand.com/help-and-advice/what-is-your-refund-policy
- RentGuarantor.com, landlords: https://www.rentguarantor.com/who-we-support/landlords
- Goodlord, Professional Guarantor Service: https://www.goodlord.com/tenant-solutions/professional-guarantor-service
- Zero Deposit, Guarantor+: https://www.zerodeposit.com/guarantorplus/
- Homeppl: https://www.homeppl.com/
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, section 1 and Schedule 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/section/1 · https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/schedule/1
- Housing Act 1988, section 4A: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/4A
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, sections 8 and 19: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/8 · https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/19
- MHCLG, Guide to the Renters' Rights Act: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act
Letting to a tenant with a guarantor company behind them? We read the guarantee before the tenancy is signed. Book a free rental appraisal.