Landlord Insurance – What Does It Cover

If you’ve ever wondered “what is landlord insurance and what does it cover, ” this article has everything you need to know.

Landlord insurance cover, at a glance, is something that protects you from any risks associated with your to-let property.

While it typically includes buildings and contents insurance, it may also have landlord-specific insurance covers such as loss of rent, tenant default insurance, and property owners’ liability.

Landlord insurance – what does it cover?

Let’s expand on the above.

Different kinds of landlord insurance plans cover various risks.

Landlord buildings insurance, for instance, covers the cost of repairing and/or rebuilding your property if the structure is damaged/destroyed by the tenants.

On the other hand, Landlord contents insurance covers furniture and other items that your tenants may have damaged, stolen, or reported “lost”.

Tenant default insurance can provide cover for rent for a limited time if your tenants fail or refuse to pay. In contrast, property owners’ liability insurance will cover any compensation claims a tenant/visitor makes for injury as a direct result of your property.

How to know if you need landlord insurance

If you have one or more to-let properties, you must have the right insurance plan. Tenants can be unpredictable, often being a direct cause of hundreds to thousands of pounds in repairs and damages.

Many UK landlords tend to go with a standard home insurance policy. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough as it does not provide cover against the risks described above, which may arise as a result of letting your property.

Even though landlord insurance is not legally required, if you’ve taken a mortgage on your home, your lender will ask you to have a landlord insurance plan in place before you can let your property.

How much does landlord insurance typically cost?

The cost of landlord insurance depends on the kind of property you have, what kind of tenants occupy it, the landlord insurance you choose, and the respective cover levels you require for the selected plan.

As will all insurance providers, the insurer will calculate the cost of insurance based on how likely you are to make a claim and the estimated cost of any claims you make in future.

An easy way to determine how much landlord insurance will cost is to run some quote comparisons, where you can quickly get and compare quotes from the UK’s top landlord insurance providers.

What will my landlord insurance realistically cover?

When it comes to “landlord insurance: what does it cover”, most policies will provide physical property cover, which generally includes:

Dwelling – To pay for repairs to your home if it is damaged by natural disasters such as wind, fire, lightning or other covered losses

Other structures – Replace damaged or detached structures like a detached fence or garage door.

Personal property for servicing the to-let premises – This may include a lawnmower which may be damaged.

Finding the right landlord insurance according to your personal circumstances is really easy once you start comparing quotes online.