Insurance for Landlord

Insurance for landlord

For a landlord the answer to this question is relatively simple. It all boils down to you asking yourself, as per a famous film line, the basic question “do I feel lucky?” Not having a specialist policy providing insurance for the landlord may be fine until your luck runs out.

Few landlords would feel lucky enough to run the risk of having no insurance at all on their property or properties. Storm damage, subsidence, fire and other natural disasters can happen to a landlord just as easily as an owner-occupier. Landlords will usually want these covered but some may believe that this can be achieved via ‘normal’ owner occupier buildings and contents insurance.

This would be a serious mistake. Firstly such insurance will never cover a property that is being rented out – whether the property is residential or commercial. If you suffer a natural disaster and the insurance company discover the property is rented you will find that your claim will be rejected and you’ll be writing some potentially very large cheques. You may suddenly not feel quite so lucky.

Getting the right protection

Secondly, basic property and contents insurance just won’t cover many of the risks that you, as a landlord, will be vulnerable to. Tenants can accidentally or through neglect, sometimes cause serious damage to a property. It may be a considerable bordering insurmountable challenge trying to get them to pay up. It’s also unfortunately true that not everyone is honest and tenants who run up rent arrears can disappear without trace leaving you seriously out of pocket. Some of these risks can be offset through the traditional deposit system but this can be difficult to administer and keep ‘balanced’.

It isn’t only tenants and tenant-related risks that may push your luck to its limit without having insurance for landlord in place. If the above aren’t worrying enough, as a landlord you may have major legal liabilities for people who are in your rented property – both tenants and their visitors. If the property is commercial then your liabilities may be even greater, irrespective of what insurance your tenants may have.

None of these risks could possibly be covered by a domestic ‘owner-occupier’ policy and this is why there are specialist providers of landlord insurance who will cover many or all of them plus others.

Having a specialist insurance for landlord policy of this type in place is not essential, but it may be both highly desirable and sensible however lucky you feel!