If you’re entering into the buy-to-let sector, consider the kind of insurance you’ll need. As a landlord, basic home and contents insurance isn’t going to be enough to cover you for third party risks – the third party being your tenant(s).
You should purchase specialist landlord-insurance, but different insurers offer different levels of cover for different risks. Additional policies can be purchased, depending on the level of cover that you feel comfortable with, and based on what you need.
Some additional insurance for-landlords to consider includes public liability insurance, rent guarantee-insurance, legal expense cover, or unoccupied cover, which we’ll tell you more about here:
Public liability insurance
This kind of insurance protects you in the event you were sued for damage to your tenant’s property, or if your tenant suffered personal injury or illness as a result of living in your accommodation.
Rent-guarantee insurance
Redundancy, illness, divorce – unfortunately these things could happen to almost anyone, including your tenants. If they aren’t able to pay their rent, rent-guarantee insurance could help you to cover the cost until the matter is resolved. This is especially important if you’re still paying the mortgage on the rental property.
Legal expenses cover
If you became involved in a dispute with your tenant over unpaid rent, damage to the property, a deposit dispute or eviction dispute, legal expenses cover could help you cover costs in the event of a tenant dispute of this nature.
Other things to consider
Some basic landlord policies may cover these things or part of these things or could include additional extras such as cover for the cost, or repairing malicious damage.
You may need a lower level of cover if the property is unoccupied – which may be relevant if you’re doing up the property, or you rent to students who are away for part of the year.
This article was provided by Home & Life.