Landlord Contents Insurance
- if you are a Landlord and require Landlord
only Contents cover, you will know how difficult this is to find.
Most insurers seem to only want to offer landlords contents insurance products
as an extension of a Buy to Let Buildings Insurance Product. If you own a Flat or apartment or
maisonette, you will find that usually, the Freeholder of the property will
insure the Building as a whole and charge you a proportion of the premium.
This
unfortunately means that you have to locate your own Landlords Contents
Insurance cover as this may prove to be difficult.
Cover is usually available on a new for old basis for loss or damage (excluding
malicious damage by tenants). Cover usually includes replacement of locks
following theft of keys, loss of metered water plus loss of rent with a
proportion of
the sum insured. Other perils covered include the following;
Fire. Smoke. Explosion. Lightning. Aircraft. Riot
Civil Commotion. Impact by Vehicle or Animal. Falling Trees, Telegraph Poles or
Lampposts. Theft or Attempted Theft by Forcible & Violent Entry. Malicious
Damage other than by Tenant. Flood. Storm. Water or Leaking Oil from any fixed
domestic heating installation. Subsidence damage to contents.
For most
landlords, obtaining buy to let insurance is a requirement of their mortgage,
but this relates only to the building and not to the contents. Landlords
contents insurance is often a lot harder to obtain as a stand alone contract
for contents only is usually only available from a small number of sources. The
usual method of cover is to simply add contents to the buildings insurance
policy, however, this is not always possible. If you are a landlord that has
purchased a flat in a block, you will find that in almost all cases, the
freeholder of the block will have arranged the buildings cover and thus you are
unable to add landlords contents cover to this contract.
Many landlords
feel that buying contents only cover is not worthwhile, the premiums seem quite
high compared with the actual amount of items provided for the tenants use. When
most discover that the fitted kitchen and bathroom are actually part of thee
building then their interest in contents cover wanes even more. Before cover for
landlords contents is considered, a good starting point is to calculate exactly
the value of items you are supplying with the property and exactly how you would
feel if they were damaged or stolen, Many landlords have a fairly relaxed
attitude to the damage to the contents, expecting to have to replace them every
few years anyway.
So to insure
what is in effect is only a few thousand pounds of landlords contents , may seem
to be wasting money, however, the landlords contents policy does usually come
with a very valuable additional cover. This cover is a landlords liability
insurance and it is the liability attached to the ownership and supply of the
contents. cover is usually for £1,000,000 and whilst as a landlord you may not
be able to see how a claim could arise out of the ownership and supply of the
contents, we are living in a very litigious age and many tenants will be quite
happy to visit a no win no fee solicitor if any thing happens to them.
Often a claim
under the liability section of a landlords contents insurance will be far and
above the actual value of content in the home, even if the claim is not proven,
the policy will include defense costs and these can often run in to several
thousand pounds. There are several providers of landlords contents only polices
and to get the best deal it pays to shop around, always check to see the level
of cover you are being offered. Some cheaper policies don't include the
liability aspect and it is important to include this cover.
Cover is
usually available on a new for old basis and covers a wide range of insurance
perils (malicious damage by the tenant is usually excluded. Extras such as cover
for replacement locks are also included + loss of metered water cover which can
prove to be a most valuable cover. Other perils are fairly standard and are
similar to what you would expect under your own contents insurance policy Fire.
Smoke. Explosion. Lightning. Aircraft. Riot Civil Commotion. Impact by Vehicle
or Animal. Falling Trees, Telegraph Poles or Lampposts. Theft or Attempted Theft
by Forcible & Violent Entry. Malicious Damage other than by Tenant. Flood.
Storm. Water or Leaking Oil from any fixed domestic heating installation.
Subsidence damage to contents.
When applying for your landlords contents insurance policy, the insurer will
need to ask several questions to establish the rate, some assume that your are
letting your property to a professional or working person. Always remember to
advise the insurer of the occupational class of the tenant in your property,
there may be a price difference. When you receive you contents insurance policy
wording, always remember to check the fine print, you may find that any change
of tenant need to be notified and prolonged periods of unoccupoancy may result
in there being no cover.
