All Landlord Rental Property Insurance: Update August 15-2009 All About "Landlords Rental Property Insurance" Information By Insurance Experts

Landlords rental property insurance is defined as a policy to cover a property owner from financial losses connected with their property which they let out. Mainly a landlord insurance policy will cover the building itself with the option of including the contents left within. It covers standard perils such as fire, lightning, explosion, earthquake, storm, flood, escape of water/oil, subsidence, theft and malicious damage. Each insurance policy is different and may or may not include all these items. Most companies will provide the option to have extra cover on top of what is considered the standard cover. These may include things such as accidental damage, legal protection, alternative accommodation costs or rent guarantee insurance.

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Buy to Let Landlord Insurance and Standard Home Cover

By Richard A Burgess

If you purchased your let property as a buy to let, you may see it purely as a business investment. However, if you have rented out a house you used to live in, it may not be immediately apparent that you need specific buy to let landlord insurance.

However, if you let your property and subsequently have to claim on your insurance policy, you may find that the insurer may refuse to pay out if you have not notified them of the change in the nature of the occupation.

How does standard home cover differ from landlord's insurance?

Buy to let landlord's insurance may be different from standard home cover because the risk profile of a let property may be deemed to be different.

What happens if the property is empty?

If the property falls empty, whether you are a landlord or an owner-occupier, you may need to inform your insurers if it is vacant for 30 days or more. This is because the nature of the property changes again in the insurer's eyes, because it becomes an unoccupied property which then needs unoccupied property insurance.

Vacant property may be more at risk from vandalism, and may also suffer more than occupied property from damage caused by fire or flood. The sooner fire or flood damage is repaired the better, but the trouble with a vacant property is that by definition there is no one on site to deal with these problems or call for some help.

What else do you have to consider?

Whilst buy to let landlord insurance may be different in some ways to standard home buildings and contents cover, there are some similarities. For example, you may wish to consider:

what terms and conditions there are. Some insurers may insist that property owners must fit certain door and window locks to show that they have taken steps to prevent break in;
what exclusions and limitations there are. They may be particularly pertinent if contents are included, as some insurers may have limits on the amounts that can be claimed for single items; and
what the claims procedure is. Whilst the best case scenario is that you never have to make a claim on your buy to let landlord insurance, it may be a good idea to keep the documents to hand just in case!

Richard Burgess is Director of cover4letproperty ( http://www.cover4letproperty.co.uk ) a dedicated UK landlord insurance broker. Their easy to use site and friendly staff will get you multiple quotes from specialist insurers for landlord insurance at a competitive price.

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