Policy Price

Article by Richard Burgess

If you are a landlord, then it may be safe to predict that you will have an interest in the best let property insurance – though probably with the proviso that it is cost-effective!

So, what might make good landlords cover insurance?

The obvious protection

A typical policy may need to provide cover against the buildings and contents side of your property, as you may expect. It might also be a sound idea to search for a policy that provides a healthy degree of landlords third party liability protection because, as a landlord, you may be rather more vulnerable to such claims than a standard owner-occupier.

Some subtletiesWhen selecting cover though, as you are trying to think about the best let property insurance, try to keep in mind a few perhaps less obvious points:

• not all modern day landlords cover policies provide subsidence cover as standard – in some cases that may be a very real and possibly hugely expensive risk, so having the support of insurance behind you may prove to be reassuring;

• a risk that few landlords like to think about, is that of malicious damage caused by tenants – some policies may cover such damage;

• given the potential legal expenses involved should one of your tenants sue you for third-party damages, you may feel the best let property insurance would be the one that would also cover such costs (keep in mind though that this form of insurance typically will not cover legal expenses arising from disputes with tenants over rent arrears or eviction proceedings etc);

• if your property is unoccupied (this means people not in residence as distinct from a property being empty in the furnishings sense) for more than 30 consecutive days, your insurance cover may become void unless you have taken out unoccupied property insurance (also known as vacant property cover);

• not all policies provide what is called trace and access cover – that is the insurance protection that will meet the costs of trades people needing to cause damage to your property in order to find the source of a problem;

• some policies may cover you for any types of tenants you may have in your property but some may exclude certain categories such as DSS or students etc;

• if your property is out of action due to an insured risk, you may not be able to rent it out – some policies may offer elements of loss of rental income cover.

So, what is best?

The best let property insurance for someone else may not be best for you. Only you will be able to decide after you have thought about your situation and its vulnerabilities, then matched that to what the landlords policies are offering.

About the Author

Richard Burgess is Director of cover4letproperty (http://www.cover4letproperty.co.uk) a dedicated UK landlord insurance broker. Their easy to use site and friendly staff will get you multiple quotes from specialist insurers for landlord insurance at a competitive price.

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