Explanation of Landlord Insurance

Landlord insurance is a derivative of traditional home insurance. The key factor being that the occupant of the property is not the person who owns it. This means that the potential risks have to be considered as well as the fact that the person occupying the property, not being the owner may not take as much care of the building.

Like a house insurance policy, landlord insurance falls into two main sections

• Buildings Insurance : covers the property (and usually the liability of the landlord as owner)

• Contents Insurance : covers the landlord's contents (not the tenants)

Cover is usually against the standard insurance perils (Fire, storm, theft) etc but may be extended to include accidental damage (either for buildings or contents)

There are also some optional extra covers that may be available

• Legal Expenses Insurance - covers costs of repossession or contract disputes and/ or other similar eventualities

• Rent Guarantee Insurance - covers loss of rent should the tenant not pay.

• Boiler breakdown/ home emergency cover. 

Types of tenancies

There are many different types of tenants, ranging from professional lets, where the tenant pays the rent out of their own earnings, to Subsidised lets (the landlord receives the rent from a third party, but the tenancy agreement is with the tenant) and DSS lets (the agreement is with the council), as well as asylum seekers. Multiple student lets are also considered to be landlord insurance (as are bedsits). The type of tenancy is important because the landlord insurance rates depend significantly on the occupant.

Maximum buildings sum insured £500,000 Maximum contents sum insured £50,000 Click here for higher sums insured

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