Landlords Insurance - a helpful overview

As a landlord, you are responsible for insuring any let properties that you may own. Regardless of how many properties are included within your portfolio, if you are letting property, Landlords Insurance should be a key consideration for you.

The risks associated with let properties are significantly different to owner occupied properties. For this reason, it may take you a little longer to review the specific type of Landlords Insurance policy you require.

Our guide to Landlords Insurance hopes to make this process as easy as possible. It will review some of the key policy distinctions and policy types of Landlords Insurance to ensure that you can make an informed decision when you finally come to make a purchase.

Commercial Insurance v Let Property Insurance

As a basic definition, let property refers to domestic property, while commercial property refers to premises occupied by a business.

One of the main differences between commercial and let property Landlords Insurance is that commercial insurance generally covers higher sums. This is because there is usually more activity at a commercial property which increases the element of risk. As part of this, there may also be a few additional questions that an insurer will ask a commercial landlord in order to assess what operations take place at that property and to determine the level of risk involved.

Some Typical Features

Buildings Cover: The main insurance perils often insured by buildings cover include fire, lightening, aircraft, explosion, smoke, impact, burst pipes or leakage of oil, storm or flood, malicious damage, subsidence and theft.

Property Owners Liability: This could prove an essential part of a landlords insurance policy because, as a landlord, you risk being held liable for a range of accidents during your ownership of that building. One example would be if you were carrying out maintenance work on the roof and your tools were to fall and hit a pedestrian or a nearby vehicle. Without insurance, you could be exposed to a hefty compensation claim that could set you back thousands of pounds.

Please note that Property Owners Liability is also commonly referred to as Public Liability Cover.

Loss of Rent: Cover is usually provided for the loss of rent payable to the insured if he lets out part of the premises and does not receive the rent from his tenant following insured damage at the property.

Contents: If you have particularly valuable possessions in your property, such as expensive furniture or other fixtures and fittings, this policy could appeal to you. If your contents were to get damaged in some way, it could cost you a lot to replace or repair these. Contents cover helps to transfer this risk and contents cover can usually be provided on an all risks basis or on a fire or perils basis only.

Landlords Fixtures & Fittings: Covers against damage to the landlord’s fixtures and fittings.

Common Add-Ons Available

There are a few other optional add-ons that are often made available as part of an overall Landlords Insurance package. You might like to consider the following add-ons:

Theft of Keys: This is essential as, depending on your business type, losing your keys and having to replace locks could prove a massive setback.

Exhibitions Cover: For a little extra, your property could be covered for damage to property while it is viewed by potential tenants.

Loss of Metered Water: This will cover your property against any loss of metered water. It is estimated that one in five cases of loss of metered water are caused by undetected leaks and that one in three are caused by the meter being connected to an upstairs flat, which could be a pain if the upstairs flat isn’t yours.