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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.
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