Rental Property Insurance Quote

Rental property insurance quote get the right deal

You’re probably not just looking for any old rental property insurance quote but one that will give you the best possible cover and at the lowest possible cost.

It’s not possible to generalise as to what constitutes the best forms of rental property insurance. Each landlord’s needs are different and clearly the person renting out that large office block may have a different view of their insurance requirements than the person letting out a single flat in a large block.

Even so, there are some things that it may be possible to generalise on – and not just the price!

Hopefully you have avoided the mistake of taking out normal ‘owner-occupier’ buildings and contents insurance for your rented property. That form of insurance will not cover your property if you’re renting it out and would be useless to you in the event of a claim. To start with you’ll almost certainly need to look for specialised landlord insurance to get your rental property insurance quote. Yes, it will probably be a few pounds more expensive than owner-occupied versions but at least you’ll be covered.

The second point to think about relates to the sort of cover you’ll need. There are many variations of this and you’ll form your own decisions but typically a good landlord insurance policy will include cover for things such as:

• Public liability. That visitor to your tenants who walks into a door and injures themselves MAY call it an accident but equally they may see it as your negligence because the door didn’t carry a large notice saying “please don’t walk into me”. Joking apart – claims can arise from nowhere and court awards can be high if the court accepts that the injury arose due to maintenance or safety issues. Remember – you are unlikely to be present when accidents occur and won’t be able to put your side of events in many cases;
• Buildings and contents. Your rental property carries all the usual risks of damage due to flood, fire, storm damage and subsidence etc. It also though is at risk from tenant-related damage due to a lack of care and attention or in some hopefully rare cases, malicious activity or theft;
• Absconding tenants. Although your rental agreement may in theory make it impossible, in practice many landlords have encountered the tenants who run up large rent arrears then vanish leaving behind a loss. You may be lucky and be able to offset some through the held deposit but good landlord insurance may reimburse you for any true losses;
• Special property cover. Few landlords are lucky enough to achieve 100% occupancy and even if they can, the building will need to be empty at times for redecoration etc. Traditionally insurance companies get very edgy when properties are empty so this situation needs to be explicitly covered;
• Loss of income. Don’t forget that a problem that means your house is uninhabitable also means you’ll not only have the cost of fixing it but also a significant loss of income while you’re doing so due to the absence of tenants. This can also be covered;

One last thing to keep in mind when looking for your rental property insurance quote is that if your property is partly or wholly rented out for commercial purposes (e.g. a shop with accommodation or an office) your requirements may be slightly different again.

You can obtain a rental property insurance quote from the specialist providers of landlords insurance. Many of them operate across the Internet and a quick search should lead you to one of their sites. Good luck!