Against the background of continuing uncertainty about Brexit and its effects on the overall housing situation in the UK, it is practically anyone’s guess how landlords might fare during 2019, concluded a report by Landlord News on the 21st of December 2018.
The one certainty in this unsettled situation, however, is that if you own buy to let property, you are certain to continue to need landlord insurance.
So, here are some tips and suggestions about arranging the landlord insurance you need:
Your needs
- whenever you are arranging insurance – and even more so when arranging landlord insurance – it is important to focus on the cover that you need and not simply buying an off-the-shelf solution that represents good value for money;
- you need to be able to tailor your landlord insurance to suit the particular circumstances of your particular let property which is why the help at Roger Butler Insurance might come in handy;
Specialist providers
- that means focusing on specialist providers who have the expertise and experience of matching your specific needs and requirements with a wide range of potential landlord insurance products that are on the market today;
- with the inside knowledge held by such specialist insurers, you may find policies with features not otherwise offered as standard by other products;
- some providers, for example, offer policies that come with protection against malicious damage by your tenants or their visitors as standard;
- a further example relates to landlord liability insurance. This offers essential protection against claims against you from tenants, their visitors, neighbours, or members of the public, who hold you responsible, as the landlord, for injuries they have suffered or property they have had damaged. Some policies may incorporate to provide as much as 5 million indemnity, even where those tenants are unemployed or on welfare benefits such as universal credit;
Scope of the cover
- in other words, you need to understand the nature and extent of the cover offered by competing landlord insurance policies;
- most fundamental, perhaps, is the level of building insurance provided – since this needs to be sufficient to completely clear the site and reconstruct the premises, in the event of a worst case scenario, when the whole building is destroyed or razed to the ground. This can also be helpful in case of severe damages that may not require rebuilding, rather renovation and remodeling with the help of contractors (like those at https://remodelingcontractororlando.com/);
- similarly, you may want to ensure that adequate contents insurance is included to safeguard those possessions you continue to own in your let property. The cover needs to be flexible enough to protect a range of higher value furniture, fittings and appliances, or low enough to protect minimal landlord’s contents such as just the carpets and curtains in common areas;
- it is also a good idea to check first whether the landlord insurance policy you are offered incorporates the option for compensation for loss of rental income (in the event of a serious insured incident which may leave your let property temporarily unlettable) and, if so, the extent of any such compensation.
With such a wide range of landlord insurance policies from which to choose, it repays to compare them with some care and caution.
In that task, it may also help to consult an established and experienced landlord insurance provider who may do much of the searching on your behalf to identify those policies that match your specific needs and circumstances, with competitive premium rates.
