Residential Landlord Insurance

If you’re a landlord of residential properties, you may find that standard home insurance does provide appropriate cover for your investments. Therefore, you should look into taking out proper residential landlord insurance;

Residential landlord insurance

There is a wide range of options for residential landlords to insure their properties. Although having residential landlord insurance is not currently a legal requirement, many buy-to-let mortgages providers require their borrowers to take out at least a basic level of residential landlord insurance.

Features and optional extras you may see on residential landlord insurance policies:

Buildings cover

Buildings cover is usually the most basic type of landlord insurance available. Like normal buildings, insurance covers your let property’s structure, such as the walls, roof, and permanent fixtures.

Your policy should be large enough to cover the cost of clearing the land and rebuilding the property if an insured event destroyed it.

Contents cover

Contents cover will protect the items you provide in a property you let as furnished or partially furnished; exactly what is covered will, of course, vary by provider, and some might have additional costs for insuring some items; however, things which may be covered include Sofas, carpets, TVs and white goods such as fridges and washing machines.

Some types of cover might be under a ‘New for old’ policy, while others might offer indemnity coverage.

Landlord liability cover

If a tenant or visitor of your property was to make a personal injury claim against you, this policy could cover the legal costs you incur; if you were found to be at fault, it could also pay the legal costs and compensation payment to the claimant.

Employer’s liability cover

If you’re a landlord with employees working on your properties, such as cleaners or maintenance workers, you may consider the employer’s liability cover as a normal liability policy for landlords that may not include employees.

Emergency cover

Some unexpected events like gas leaks or pipes bursting need a quick response to make your property safe and secure for your tenants. Having a landlord’s emergency cover in place can help you get an expert to the property to try and resolve the issue.

Some policies will provide you and your tenants with an emergency contact number that can be used twenty-four hours a day which will be able to send an approved tradesperson to your property.