When letting a property, it’s important to ensure that if anything goes wrong, it can be fixed. You can’t leave anything to chance, especially if the property is there as a primary source of income for you. Suddenly losing tenants, or facing huge costs due to damage or your legal liability for injury, could be problematic. Hence, one of the first questions to ask yourself if you need insurance for buy to let properties is if you can survive financially if you suddenly lose income on the property.
Whether you’re the landlord of many properties, or just one or two, you need to make sure you’re covered for any potential loss of income. Without an insurance policy, you could essentially lose your whole income due to damage. If your property is unusable, and you can’t afford to fix it, then you will not be receiving any kind of income in the near future. Hence, an insurance policy would stop this from occurring.
Another thing to ask yourself is this: ‘What kind of insurance do I need?’ For a landlord that is renting out property without any inner furnishings and fittings, then a completely different kind of insurance will be required. If you, as a landlord, are expecting your tenant to furnish the property themselves, then it is not your responsibility to pay out for content insurance. Why? Because you don’t own the contents.
If, however, you are renting out a fully-furnished property, then you need to ensure you have contents insurance. Otherwise, you’ll be taking a really rather large risk. Should the property be damaged by burglary or a fire, you will be responsible for the replacement of the furniture for the sake and comfort of your tenants. Otherwise, you’ll probably lose them.