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Landlord Insurance

We can offer landlord insurance for persons that own buildings that are rented to catering establishments.  Landlord Insurance is a term that applies to a policy covering buildings & contents for a property that is let. The property may be either residential or commercial and a slightly different policy is available for each. Landlord Insurance may also refer to a group of additional products all designed for a person or company that have acquired a property for rental purposes. Landlord Insurance may also be known as Buy to let Insurance, the two terms are interchangeable, there are many providers of these products on the market, each may use a different name to describe the product on offer. In the Landlord Insurance Group, we can usually find the following products, Landlord Building & Contents Insurance, Rent Guarantee, Legal Expenses, Emergency Assistance. None of these products are compulsory although if you do have a loan or a mortgage on your property, you will be required to effect landlord building Insurance as a condition of the loan. Your lender will want their interest noted under the contract wording and you will have to insure for an amount as stated in their loan offer.

Buy to Let Insurance.

This is the policy that most persons effect, usually as a condition of their mortgage. Your lender will require you to insure with a recognised insurer, you will have to note their interest under the policy wording and make sure that the policy wording you acquire, meets with the conditions as set down in the Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook. In practice, this is fairly easy as insurers realise that if their Landlord Insurance policy wording does not contain the perils as requested in the handbook, then no one will buy it. As a purchaser of Landlord Insurance it is vitally important that your obtain conformation that all of the requested perils are covered as, if this is not the case, you may find your self in breach of your mortgage terms. The perils covered are fairly typical of a policy you would expect to receive for your own home. Fire. Lightning,Expolsion, Earthquke,Storm, Flood, Escape of WATER OR OIL, Impact, Collapsing Trees & Aerials, Damage to underground pipes and cables, Subsidence Landslip & Heave. Theft or Attempted Theft. This list of perils is not exhaustive and before you purchase a product from any company, you should ask to see a copy of their Key Facts document, which will outline all of the important terms & conditions for you. As well as the above perils your policy will include cover in respect of Property Owners Liability. Property owners liability cover is a standard feature of a Landlord Insurance policy, again it is not compulsory but it is a very important cover. Liability can arise in connection with accidents resulting from a landlord ownership of a building. A slate may fall off the roof for example and injure a passer-by cover for this is provided under the building section of the insurance policy and a sum insured of £1,000,000 is fairly typical. Accidents happening in the home tend to come under the heading of occupiers liability and for this type of cover to apply, then the landlord would have to extend his building insurance policy to cover contents as well. A tenant that requires occupiers liability insurance will need to take out his own contents Insurance product. Another section of the landlord building insurance cover relates to loss of rent, this is loss of rent by peril, not by tenant default which is a totally separate insurance. For cover to apply under this section, an insured event must have taken place such as a fire or a flood. The amount of coverage is usually expressed as a percentage of the total sum insured, 20% is fairly typical. When obtaining your landlord building insurance quote, your insurers will require to know certain information to enable them to " rate" your proposal. One of the main factors is the type of tenant that you intend to seek. In general terms most insurers seem to have about four categories of tenant types1-Working or Professional, 2- Students, 3- DSS Referalls,4- Houses that are let to local authorities or housing Associations where the contract for letting is not between the landlord and the tenant. Other factors include the location of your property, your insurers will be able to tell a great deal from the post code such as whether the property is located on a flood plain or it is is an higher that is likely to suffer from subsidence damage. In most cases, you will be free to pick your building sum insured although it must be remembered that if you have a loan on the property, your lender will probably specify the amount they want covered. If you do not have a mortgage of the property, the Association of British Insurance produce a useful guide to help you calculate your sum insured and this can be located by clicking here. Many people are unsure as to the amount they should cover there building for some, believe it to be the value or open market amount but this is not the case. You should insure for the rebuilding or reinstatement cost and this is explained in full on the Association of British Insurers website. An option extension to the landlord building insurance, is landlord contents insurance, many landlords do not place a great deal of contents within their let property but if you do require insurance, you should value the contents as new. Buying a Landlords contents insurance will make sure that you receive them liability cover that attaches to the supply of the contents, not all policies have a full landlord liability insurance wording.

Insurers will also want you to disclose details of previous claims to them and any other material facts. When requesting quotations, it is important that all relevant details are explained as failure to do so may result in you not receiving the cover your require. When arranging your landlord insurance, make sure that your ask your intermediary to note the insert of your lender under the policy wording, this is a requirement of the Contract rights Act. As well as the above mentioned landlord insurance for building, you can also arrange a landlord legal expenses insurance which will cover your in respect of a number of different eventualities such as defence against prosecution cover, tenant default, breech of tenancy agreement and in most cases a 24 hour landlord legal helpline. Emergency assistance cover will provide you with cover against domestic emergencies at the property, ideal for the landlord that lives abroad, you must study your policy wording as the definition of what actually constitutes a Home Emergency differs from one insure to the next. Rent guarantee cover will provide the Landlord with a payout if the tenant doers not pay the rent, There is usually a policy excess of about one month and before cover can start, you are normally required to have taken references.