Landlord Home Insurance

Landlord home insurance

Anyone who owns property will naturally enough worry about it from time to time. These worries are always that bit greater for the landlord because potentially they could suffer from a whole category of risks that just do not apply to the owner occupier. Unless good and specific landlord home insurance is in place, any landlord may find themselves in serious financial difficulties.

These landlord-related risks are of course related to the use of the property for what any insurance company would see as commercial purposes. Whether a property is being let for residential or commercial occupancy, they are both ‘commercial’ in insurance terms because the property will have tenants and with tenants come additional risks.

Some of these risks are obvious though others are perhaps less so. Most landlords will appreciate that some tenants may not respect the property and the risk of damage or deterioration due to neglect or carelessness by the tenants is always a real one. Although comparatively rare, not all tenants are honest and the theft of fixtures, fittings and furnishings is always a possibility. Get a great landlord insurance policy from ukinsurancenet.com

Insurance myths

If these sorts of risks are usually obvious ones, some landlords may not appreciate the full extent of their legal exposure to third-party claims. If a tenant suffers injury in the rented property, in some situations a court may rule against the landlord and award high damages. Even more surprising for some landlords, this liability may also extend to third parties who are just visiting the tenants in a residential let or if the letting is commercial, the landlord may also be liable for damages to members of the public while they’re on the premises.

This leads into a discussion of the two great landlord home insurance myths:

1. There is no risk if the tenants have their own insurance and
2. The landlord’s own domestic buildings and contents insurance will suffice.

It may be advisable to completely disregard these two myths!

In general, although it may be highly desirable to try and encourage the tenants to have their own liability insurance, in practice this can be difficult or impossible to achieve. Even if their insurance has been checked at the outset, no landlord can be sure that it has not since lapsed or been cancelled. No court will be interested in the landlord’s explanation that they “thought the tenant had their own insurance”.

Nothing could also be further from the truth than domestic insurance will cover let properties – it won’t. The moment the insurance company discover that the property is being let out, then the insurance will become invalid. This means that any claims for fire, flood, subsidence, theft or anything else, will be rejected. Any landlord who attempts to lodge a claim stating the property is owner occupied when this is not the case is likely to be considered guilty of attempted fraud and may be prosecuted.

All these financial risks and potential traumas are unnecessary. There are specialist suppliers of landlord home insurance who offer policies to cover all these risks and more. They will be happy to offer specialist advice and to help reduce the landlord’s worries over the security of their property. Sounding them out to understand their policies and prices may be a good idea. Protect your property with a landlords insurance policy from ukinsurancenet.com