Landlords Insurance

[Gray67]

We are about to rent our property.

Can I ask for those who rent, what landlord insurance do you have? The main thing I'm worried about is actually just potential damage from a tenant ie. Scratching the floors, breaking windows etc rather than any valuables in the house. There aren't any really.

We do have buildings insurance as part of the block of flats. I will check but I am guessing this may not apply if renting.

Any advice welcome!

The person renting should be insured against damaging your property.

If you're worried about damage to your property, I'd reconsider as rental properties do experience wear and tear. Mostly it's deemed fair.

But in answer to your question, Direct Line landlord insurance for the various options.

I wouldn’t rent if you are worried about damage. Rentals do get wear & tear, it’s just part of the parcel of being a landlord. Most of the time it’s deemed fair unless they drop a hot iron on a new carpet or something stupid.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I see what you mean.

Apologies for being a bit dim, but what does landlord insurance actually cover then? If it's unfurnished.

You can get LL instance that even includes malicious damage from tenant but it's expensive. It doesn't matter because you can write of insurance cost against tax.

So I suggested you go and look at the options because there's things like rent cover, legal, various things that aren't the usual residential insurance.

Do you understand how the new legislation will change things? Do you understand the risks you are taking?

We rent out a house we inherited. We have the best landlord insurance we could find, and its saved our bacon a few times. As a pp said, direct line landlord insurance. It covers off the top of my head, among other things:

Rent guarantee, for If the tenant doesn't pay their rent, and the related legal expenses to resolve that

Legal support for evictions provided they are done within the law

Malicious damage by tenants.

Damage caused by flooding, leaking pipes etc.

Temporary alternative accommodation for tenants if there is a major issue with the property.

All the usual building structural, fixtures and fittings stuff is covered.

Lock and key replacement.

Liability cover for tenants and people working at the property. If our tenants sue us for something, we have that cover to allow us to legally defend ourselves.

And the absolute best part of the policy is the emergency cover, we've used it for a boiler breakdown, an unexpected drain blockage, and something else I'm sure. They have a 24 hour cover and will send out an engineer usually the same day to try and fix whatever has broken down. That alone is worth the cost of the policy, for my peace of mind if nothing else. I know whatever the tenants have a problem with, I can get someone out to fix it. I take my responsibility to my tenants very seriously, if something goes wrong, they need it put right asap.

Imo, no one should be renting out a property without solid gold landlord cover, unless you have very deep pockets.

I have buildings and landlords contents cover on rental properties. It covers things like the house burning down (heaven forbid!) You can also get rent insurance but I've never bothered with that, the tenants have affordability checks etc.

I've never heard of insurance being used to cover wear and tear. Fair wear and tear is part of being a landlord. You'll be given back properties that need to be repainted (even if only rented a year) and generally I've found kitchens and bathrooms, carpets etc can get tired quite quickly.

If a tenant breaks or damages something then you claim on the deposit. It's often clear cut - they break a mirror in the bathroom, they pay. But if they return a property with scratched carpets or scuffed walls, chipped floors etc then it's usually wear and tear and you'll need to pay or fix yourself. Not heard of insurance to cover it. Read the tenancy agreement to see who is responsible for what. Try to get a long term tenant as hopefully they'll look after it well, vs short term, often it's all the moving furniture in and out which causes understandable damage.

I had Direct Line landlord insurance. We rented our house out for 5 years when we lived abroad briefly for work. Our tenants caused over 20k of damage. I had to pay £100 excess per claim (claimed for 7 different issues) but they paid out for everything.

Direct Line for Landlords. It’s a really good policy. You can claim for malicious damages, but not wear and tear and there will be ALOT of wear and tear.

The types of LL insurance are (1) building (2) contents (3) legal cover (4) rent guarantee. Within item (3) or (4) they will cover malicious damage depending upon the insurer you can also add extras like emergency call outs again depending upon the insurer. If your flat has a mortgage you must have building insurance. Please check your lease to ensure you can rent ensure you don’t have a clause “private residential use only”. Finally only insure what you can’t afford to lose/ cover yourself. I only have building cover and have rented 7 BTL for 10 years, however I have a good agent and I’m very careful with vetting my tenants, and having 7 properties allows me to balance risk and deal with issues better.

Alan Boswell is commonly used by BTL landlords. I’ve always found it better value than Direct Line and they don’t quibble over claims.