About Our Property Owners Insurance
Residential Properties
As a landlord, your properties are the most important asset you hold, so isn’t it worth ensuring they are insured to the best possible standard? There is a wide range of insurance policies encompassed within residential property insurance, such as loss of rent, accidental damage cover, and boiler cover.
First, it’s essential to understand that residential landlord insurance is different from a home insurance policy due to tenants’ additional risks. So, residential landlord insurance ensures that you have a more robust level of protection over your property.
What does Residential Landlord Insurance cover?
Regardless of how careful you and your tenants may be, accidents are almost entirely unavoidable, not to mention any acts of mother earth! However, a residential landlord policy will provide some protection over the following and more:
- Fires & Floods – Whether it’s a bad storm or some faulty electrics, fires and floods are not uncommon in homes, and you will be happy with the insurance cover should one happen in one of your homes
- Landlord Liability – This is a considerable aspect of landlord insurance. Consider your tenants as your customers, and if your home injures them, whether it’s a loose roof tile or faulty electrics, you are liable for a claim.
- Loss of Rent – If a disaster renders your residence uninhabitable for some time, your insurance may cover the lost rent during this time
Be wary, this is specifically for residential insurance connected to your tenants. If a business leases your property, you will need a completely different type of insurance which we explore in the next section.
Commercial Properties
Whether you rent to a clinic, a shop or an office, you will need a business landlord insurance policy to protect you and your premises from any claims. Commercial landlord insurance is just as multi-faceted as residential. Add accidental damage protection and contents insurance to your policy to fine-tune it.
What is included in Commercial Landlord Insurance?
- Building Insurance – If disaster strikes and your building becomes damaged in
any way, your insurance will cover the repairs - Contents Insurance – You may have the best intentions for your commercial tenants by installing additional features, but if they get damaged, you can make
sure they are insured so you don’t end up losing money - Improvements Insurance – To maintain the quality of your building, you can incorporate improvements insurance into your policy
- Rental Income Insurance – Whether your tenants cease trading and disappear, or your property becomes uninhabitable, rental income insurance can protect
your loss of rent - Liability Insurance – In the event that one of your tenants or their employees is injured in the building, liability insurance will cover the compensation and legal fees.
Holiday Lets
Short term property letting has never been more popular following the rise of companies like Airbnb and Booking.com. Airbnb has 225,000 properties listed on its site from the UK and has welcomed over 8 million guests. However, a worrying statistic is how few of the short-term rental properties in the UK have the proper insurance to cover themselves, their property and their guests. Otherwise known as Host Insurance, these policies cover people who let out a home, annexe or room on a short-term basis. Many people presume that their home insurance policy covers this, but it isn’t. Short-term rentals are seen as business use and therefore requires a specific type of insurance to go with it.
What is included with Host Insurance?
When you only use the home as a rental property part of the year and live in it the rest, you will need Host insurance in addition to your home insurance. The insurance generally covers any injuries to guests, any damage caused by guests, and any business loss due to fire, flood, or vandalism. You cannot claim wear and tear or cleaning damage.
Without this insurance, if there is a tenant injury, they can claim compensation against you in court, which can be very costly.
HMO/Student Rental
HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) and Student Lettings tend to go hand in hand. Essentially, this is when a group of people all rent a room in a house, and the living room and kitchen facilities become communal areas. This is popular with university students who don’t have much money at their disposal., It’s also becoming more popular in general due to the massive savings on bills. HMO’s are defined as a house where three or more people who are not from the same household live. It is viewed as different to a traditional landlord, which means you also need separate insurance. However, the same things are covered.
What is covered under HMO and Student Let insurance?
There are several different things you can opt to gain coverage for within your insurance policy, but below are the main points:
Fires & Floods – Whether caused by bad weather or some old roof tiles, fires and floods are relatively standard in homes, so it’s always best to protect your assets with insurance.
Landlord Liability – If a tenant is injured at your property, you may not be protected from compensation and legal fees if you don’t have liability insurance.
Loss of Rent – In the case of a disaster, your insurance may cover the lost rent if your home is uninhabitable for a while during the repairs.
