Landlords Insurance UK

Landlords insurance UK

Investment means risk in many cases, we all except that, and in their own way by buying a property a landlord is making an investment which in the wrong circumstances can come back to bite them. Buying a property involves tying up a considerable amount of cash in it, and this means you might want to protect it for all sorts of reasons. There could be a fire, or a serious break in, or even the chance of squatters. But you can cut your exposure to these things with a landlords insurance UK policy, tailored towards your needs and far better than a standard home cover plan.

A normal policy will protect the property itself against the likes of flood and fire or the cost of repair or rebuilding. The sum insured on a policy, meaning the total maximum amount it would payout for, will normally be enough to cover the rebuilding of a home from scratch if it was completely destroyed. You can even get protection for some other more unpredictable risks, such as earthquakes, damage due to terrorism, and subsidence, although an extra fee may be involved for some of these.

Of course it is important not to underestimate how much would be spent on rebuilding a property. Going for a lower premium by naming a smaller sum insured means that the company would only pay out claims up to the proportion of the property you have covered.

What does cover include?

Some other common features of landlords insurance UK policies include an element of contents protection, although this does not apply to the belongings of any tenants', which must be insured by the people living in the home themselves. On a landlord policy you can insure things which actually belong to you in the home which could be at risk to damage, like carpets, tables, desks and sofas if you are letting in furnished.

You may also get a landlord liability part of the policy, which protects you if a tenant is harmed due to something in the home which could be argued to be your responsibility. For example, a tenant might be injured should part of the ceiling come away. A landlord liability element would pay for the cost of any damages awarded to the claimant, plus the legal costs of defending the case.

A landlord's policy may also protect you against repair bills to a property which is left empty for a period of time. More traditional policies may have restrictions on how much cover they will provide to a home which is unoccupied. Some will even be invalid if a home is empty for a set period. So if a pipe burst while the home is empty and flooded the ground floor, you would be covered in full, for example, if you had the right policy in place.

These are just some of the benefits of a proper landlords insurance UK policy, which provides far more than a typical home cover deal and enables the owner to rent property out safe in the knowledge they are properly protected. In the long run, a deal could save a landlord thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds.