Do I need Landlord Insurance?

Landlord Insurance is designed to protect you, your property and your tenants. A conventional home insurance policy will not cover you for rental activity so you should always check with your provider to see if your standard home buildings insurance will be valid.

Whilst Landlord Insurance includes much of the same protection as normal household insurance there are other insurance elements that you need to consider including as a landlord;

• Non-payment of rent
• Tenants damage to the property
• Loss of earnings from rental and rehousing costs
• Accident liability

With a good/flexible Landlord insurance policy these issues will be covered to help towards protecting a positive financial future. Landlord Insurance protects your investment and prevents any disruption in your revenue stream.

Whilst Landlord Insurance isn’t compulsory, some lenders will insist that it is required as part of taking out a buy-to-let mortgage. There are also other legal requirements that you need to consider as a Landlord, such as having a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and that your property is regularly checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer. There will even be new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) coming into play for Landlords in April 2018 which you should be prepared for.

Whether you own a single rental property or have a full and varied portfolio of properties, Bluedrop Services’ Landlord Insurance is designed to protect you. Here are some of the elements that you should consider including as part of your Landlord Insurance Policy:

Landlord buildings insurance

This is standard household cover which covers the costs of the rebuild or repair of your property when they are damaged by fires, storms, floods, or vandalism. It’s important to know the rebuild cost of your property to get the correct coverage here.

Landlord contents insurance

If your property is fully or partly furnished then you will want to ensure that contents insurance is part of the overall Landlord Insurance policy. However, remember that you don’t need to insure your tenant’s possessions, they can do this themselves with tenant’s insurance.

Landlord liability insurance

This form of cover is important as you will not know who or when different people are entering your rental premises. It insures you against possible claims resulting from injury or damage caused to a tenant or visitor resulting from a fault in your property.

Loss of rental insurance

There may be times when you struggle to rent out your property. To account for this loss of income it’s a good idea to include loss of rental cover for times when your property is uninhabited. This is particularly important if you have taken out a large mortgage on the property and need to cover monthly payments.

Alternative accommodation insurance

You may be contractually required to provide alternative accommodation to your tenants in the event of an incident that makes your property uninhabitable. This must be from a specified and insured event whereby the cost of such alternative accommodation will be covered.

Rent Guarantee insurance

Unfortunately, there are many horror stories of tenants defaulting on their rental payments and a long drawn out process of eviction/rent recovery ensuing. With this form of cover, you can ensure that your rental income is protected so you don’t find yourself at a loss financially.

Unoccupied property insurance

Even when your rental property is vacant it can be important to bring in income to help cover the mortgage payments. There may be some terms that you need to adhere to for this cover to be valid so ensure that you are aware of these.
Landlord’s home emergency cover

This will cover the costs of any emergency repairs that may be required on your rental property, such as plumbing, drainage, heating, power supply, etc. Most policies will cover call-out charges, labour and materials.

There are many different mistakes Landlords can make whilst renting out their property, don't let not having Landlord Insurance be one of them.