House Insurance

[smellyfeet]

We have a property that we rent out (no mortgage on it). I rang the insurance company to tell them that we were now renting it (rather than second home) and would only need buildings cover, the premium has gone up. Is this normal?

yes I think so . You should have contents cover too though for carpets, appliances etc which could be damaged in use or as a consequence of a water leak for example.

With ordinary household insurance yes as they see tenants as a higher risk than you. There are several great specialist landlord insurance companies out there who do a much better deal and will cover you if damamge means the property is unrentable for a period. You can get insurance for if the tenant fails to pay however, I have always found this really expensive and have not bothered. To give you ball park figures my buildings insurance with loss of income and minimal contents cooker, fridge etc was 115 pounds last year for a two bedroom first floor flat and that had actually dropped from the previous year it is with Cornhill insurance.

You need landlords insurance, not just plain buildings insurance.

Yes I think it's normal for them to charge more when you're letting it out (I guess the idea is it's easier for it to fall into disrepair if the owner doesn't live there). I'm not sure about contents though. I would have thought that it's the tenant's responsiblity to get contents insurance and if they ruined your carpets or whatever they would have to pay for it.

They said they wouldnt do contents cover! Do you know if there are specialist insurances companies for landlords?

Yes as I mentioned earlier we use Cornhill, but there are plenty of others. This probably a situation where a broker can be helpful.

The specialist landlord cover will cover carpets, curtains if you provide, fridges etc. As these are your contents which in the event of fire or water leak you need insured. They will not cover accidental damage by your tenants. Your tenants should then get should get their own contents insurance for their possessions.
As I mentioned earlier we always use a broker, but if looking for the first time gets quotes from different brokers as they get different deals depending on the level of that type of business they do.
Sorry for split post accidentally posted too soon.