What Insurance Do You Need as a Landlord?

If you are an experienced landlord, you’ll be aware that there are many things that can go wrong when you allow tenants to rent your property and so it is important to have the right protection in place.

However, there are many people that have had no experience as a landlord, and yet find themselves in the position of renting out a property. Perhaps they have recently inherited a family home or are finding it hard to sell their own house. There are also people who just want to invest some cash and widen their financial portfolio by joining the buy-to-let market.

Private letting is a complex industry and while many new landlords are successful, some still find themselves in difficult and costly situations. Being a landlord is an expensive business, so you need to make sure that you have the right insurance cover, otherwise, you’ll face big expenses when things go wrong, which they so often do.

What Makes a Good Landlords’ Insurance Policy?

Landlord insurance protects landlords from the potential risks associated with letting a rental property. There are different types of landlord insurance available to cover the different risks. Landlords’ insurance usually includes buildings and contents insurance but can also be tailored to cover other insurance products such as loss of rent or property owners’ liability insurance. The type of landlord insurance that you need depends on the specific risks that you want to be covered against.

For example, one of your primary concerns may be the risks associated with the property standing empty for some time, not bringing in an income, or maybe you want to insure yourself against compensation claims.

Types of Cover for Private Letting Owners

The type of cover you need may vary. You should check which cover is required by your mortgage lender. You can also build your own landlord insurance policy choosing from covers such as those listed below. These are the most popular types of landlord insurance cover.

• Landlords’ Buildings Insurance
• Landlords’ Contents Insurance
• Landlords’ Public Liability Insurance
• Landlords’ Loss of Rent Insurance
• Malicious Damage Cover
• Legal Expenses Insurance

What Insurance Do You Need if Letting a Flat?

As already mentioned, you should check which covers are required by your mortgage lender, but you will also need to check if your leasehold agreement specifies using any particular cover. If someone else owns the freehold then you should tell them that your flat is being rented out so that they can ensure the appropriate insurance cover. You will usually need to have buildings insurance at the very least, even then you may still choose to take out other landlord insurance like landlord contents insurance if your flat is let as furnished.

What Insurance Do You Need if Letting a Room?

If you are letting out a room in a property that you also live in then it’s likely that your standard home insurance cover will no longer be valid as most insurance policies state that only immediate family of the policyholder should be residing at the property. You should contact your insurance provider and ask them to amend your policy to include a lodger. If this is not possible, you will need to consider buying a specialist landlord insurance policy.

What Insurance Do You Need if Renting to Family?

Whilst you might decide that you don’t need malicious damage or legal expenses cover when renting a property out to family, you will probably still want to take out a landlord insurance policy that includes basic cover for things like buildings insurance and property owners’ liability insurance. You should also be aware that for your landlord insurance to be valid, you’ll need to make sure that you have a proper tenancy agreement in place.

To get an online quote from Ashburnham for landlords’ insurance, simply follow the “Get Quote” button found on this page.