Residential Insurance for Landlords

Residential insurance for landlords

Because rented property often involves tenants and other issues, it can be sensible to get residential insurance for landlords. It is wrong to assume that a policy like this is a slightly more complicated version of traditional home insurance - a deal normally protects against the added risks of having a property empty for a long period, and can even protect against interruption to rent due to disaster, so there are very clear and important differences.

Specialised landlords insurance policies are often quite flexible and can often include different levels of cover. For example, you may be looking for a limited level of contents cover on top of the buildings protection, perhaps if you intend on keeping white goods in the property or furnishing it. Likewise, it is normally possible to get adequate buildings insurance only if you are not keeping anything in the property or if what remains in it when tenants are not in situ is of a very low value.

Beyond this residential insurance for landlords can include protection for if tenants do not pay rent or if rent is lost because the property is damaged by fire, therefore putting it out of action for an extended period. The rental interruption part of a policy means that typically you can not only get a payout towards repairing the damage done by a disaster like a fire, but also an amount of money towards the cash you will have lost from rent which is not being paid while repairs are carried out.

For landlords, identifying the correct sum insured, or maximum amount of cash the company would payout in the event of the complete destruction of the property, is particularly important. If the property is undervalued and the insurance reflects this you could be on the wrong end of a very large bill in the event of a fire or flood, so some landlords may choose to get a professional valuation done before deciding on cover.

Residential insurance for landlords normally also includes provision for the property being left empty for an extended period. On a traditional domestic insurance deal the house may be protected up to a very limited period of perhaps 30 days, and property which had been rented may be empty for much longer in certain circumstances.