Landlords Building Insurance

If you are the landlord of a building, its insurance is generally your responsibility. The cover is clearly in your own interests – to protect the structure against a range of potentially damaging risks and perils – but is also a reassurance for your tenants or those to whom you have leased the property.

Given the importance of arranging suitable and sufficient cover, it might be helpful to look at why you need it and what factors you may need to take into account when buying landlord’s building insurance.

Why do you need landlord’s building insurance?

Just as the term suggests, the cover protects the structure and fabric of the building that comprises your let property. It provides financial compensation in the event of loss or damage from some or all of the following risks:

• fire, earthquakes, and explosions;
• subsidence – unless your property is in an area known to be vulnerable to subsidence, in which case
• cover may not be offered, or special conditions may apply;
• flooding – once again, a known vulnerability might mean that special conditions are attached;
• impacts – from such objects as falling lampposts, trees or branches, aircraft or vehicles;
• frozen and burst pipes; and
• vandalism, theft and attempted theft.

Since a number of these risks might result in the complete loss of your property through its total destruction, any mortgage lender is almost certain to insist that you have sufficient building insurance to at least cover the outstanding mortgage balance.

What you need to know when buying cover

The description so far might be very familiar to any home owner who has arranged building insurance for their principal place of residence.

If you are letting the property, however, it is vital to understand the essential difference between standard home insurance and landlord’s building insurance. Insurers make a strict distinction between the two – since the risks are essentially different – so if you rely on standard home building insurance, but there are tenants in residence, any claim may be denied.

With that important point in mind, you also need to know the current estimated cost of rebuilding your let property if the worst comes to the worst and a major insured event means that the site needs to be cleared, architects need to be engaged and the building reconstructed.

It is this sum which informs the total sum for which the building of your let property need to be insured.

You may also need to know whether your chosen insurance policy provides for compensation for the possible loss of rental income during the period of reconstruction or any other time when damage temporarily prevents the building from being occupied.

Why choose us?

At UKinsuranceNET, we recognise the particular needs and requirements of landlords – across the whole range of property types and tenants from every kind of background.

We are able to tailor your landlord’s building insurance to meet your specific, individual needs, whilst offering quotes which you are likely to consider representing good value for money at competitive rates.