| 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.
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