It will usually be the responsibility of the tenant to ensure they have adequate contents insurance, while buildings insurance is the responsibility of the landlord.
The kind of contents insurance for a rented flat that you need will depend on a number of factors, so it can be worth comparing contents insurance quotes before you buy, to make sure you find the right policy for you.
Landlords
Landlords may want to pay for contents insurance for a rented flat, or they may want to leave that up to the tenant. There are two main situations in which a landlord may want to pay contents insurance:
- The rented flat is fully furnished, in which case a full contents insurance policy may be suitable
- The rented flat is not fully furnished but was provided to the tenant with carpets, blinds, electrical equipment and things of that nature. A more limited policy may be suitable here.
Tenants
Since most of the possessions in the flat will be the tenants, they will generally shoulder the burden of taking out a contents insurance policy.
Some insurers will see increased risk of theft or damage resulting from surrounding flats and may charge higher premiums. If the flat is shared with a group of people, it may work out cheaper to insure all the possessions in the flat under one policy. The next stage is to perform a thorough valuation of all the contents you want to cover with the insurance policy, making sure not to over or under value the things you own.