A homelessness charity has taken the unusual step of investing in an insurance service aimed at private landlords.
Husmus has backing from Google as well as the investment arm of national homelessness charity Crisis, and has now launched AI-powered Landlord Insurance.
This new product uses the company’s proprietary AI risk model to underwrite risk, offering landlords protection while directly enabling housing access for financially excluded tenants.
A statement from the company says: “The UK’s private rental market is trapped in a cycle of risk aversion. Traditional referencing relies on credit reports, which automatically disqualifies millions of reliable tenants – including self-employed, gig economy workers, recent graduates, and those new to the country.
“This forces landlords to choose between vacant properties or perceived high-risk tenancies, while pushing viable tenants toward housing insecurity and, in the worst cases, homelessness.”
Husmus claims to break this cycle with an AI model that builds a comprehensive financial picture of tenants using alternative metrics beyond traditional credit reports. This enables landlords to make more accurate, informed, and fairer rental decisions.
The firm says it offers “a complete, tech-driven solution designed to protect the entire rental experience. Landlords can get a quote in under 10 seconds and choose from three transparent tiers from basic building and content to pet damage and home emergencies.”
This supports the mission of Crisis.
“The rental market is fundamentally broken. It simultaneously creates unnecessary risk for landlords and systemic barriers for tenants,” says Sarah Wernér, chief executive of Husmus.
“We are proving that these problems have a shared solution. Our AI allows us to truly underwrite the risk, offering landlords the peace of mind they need, while offering tenants the fairness they deserve. Having the backing of Google and the strategic partnership of Crisis’ investment arm validates our approach: you can – and must – protect landlords in order to prevent homelessness.”
Husmus claims its solutions “target the systemic failures that contribute to homelessness.”
