Landlords Contents Insurance

Landlords contents insurance

When a property is rented for commercial or residential purposes, it may in some instances have contents included. In the case of commercial premises this may range from a few pictures on the walls up to perhaps some furniture and other equipment. In a residential property the landlord may have included items going right up the scale towards a fully furnished rental. In all these cases, these contents could be at serious risk unless the landlord had a good landlords contents insurance policy in place.

The risks to contents are all too obvious. Just as in an owner-occupied property, items can be accidentally damaged by the occupants or by a natural disaster such as a flood. Unlike an owner-occupied property, the contents in a rented property are also vulnerable to tenant theft, undeclared breakages and in some cases, malicious damage at departure. The fact that many rental properties stand empty from time to time also adds to the risks of burglary and squatters.

The traditional way of dealing with some of these threats for many landlords is the refundable deposit secured against an inventory. Sometimes this may be coupled with the demand for tenants to show that they have their own insurance.

Unfortunately both of these methods have their limitations. Whatever insurance a tenant has at the time a rental commences is not necessarily going to be continued. The limitations of inventory taking and the disputes and ill-feeling this can create for both parties, are well known.

Landlords insurance

The solution for the landlord that is worried by the risks to their belongings is to have effective landlords contents insurance in place.

This is a specialised market because it is important to have a clear understanding of the landlord’s requirements and for this to be matched against the right policy. There are expert providers of landlord insurance products that have these skills and will gladly advise on the appropriate products.

There are in fact a wide variety of such products. Cover can be provided for commercial or residential property contents and this can also consider those difficult ‘between let’ or redecoration periods where the house is unoccupied and, as a result, far more at risk.

The cost of such insurance will obviously vary upon several factors including the nature of the contents to be covered and their value. It would be a mistake though to assume, or perhaps hope, that standard owner-occupier contents cover will suffice – it won’t.