2017-05-26

Whether a property is your main residence or not, it's important to protect all your houses in anticipation of damage. However, landlords cannot take out regular residential insurance on buy-to-let investments. You'll need specialist landlord insurance instead.

Customising Your Policy

Before taking out cover, we would always recommend ensuring you have a full-understanding of what is and isn't covered. Fire or water damage are all too common landlord insurance claims, as these can cause damage so bad that properties are not habitable until repairs are made.

Due to this frequency of claims, insurers see these as high-risk and many do not include cover for this kind of claim in their main policy. Instead, additional cover would need to be taken out to ensure your investment property is covered.

Please note: take notice of the excess on this additional cover as it can be anywhere up to £1,000.

That isn't the only additional cover you may wish to consider though. Legal cover may or may not be included in a policy - something that will come in particular use should you have to evict a tenant for not paying rent or breaching the tenancy agreement.

Then there is cover for loss of rent. Although it will cost you more on monthly insurance premiums, this addition will protect your rental income should there be any interruptions.

Lastly, you may decide to take out additional cover for malicious damage or theft by tenants. Although no one wants to think badly of the people living in their property, this is essential cover if a tenant carries out illegal activity in your house or should things turn bad in other ways.

The cost of this cover will vary depending on the level you choose and who your tenants are. For example, this will be more costly if you're renting to students than professionals.

Build a Tailored Landlord Insurance Policy

Ensure you have the right cover for your needs by customising insurance deals and using our experts to compare protection with a range of UK insurers.

We tailor policies to our customers, adding and removing elements that both we and our customers agree are or are not relevant to their individual situation. Landlord insurance could cover everything from basic building and contents to loss of rent and alternative accommodation, inflation protection to cables and underground pipes cover.

Learn more about comparing landlord insurance by getting in touch or by viewing more from our blog.