LANDLORD INSURANCE

Many investors don’t have comprehensive landlord insurance that provides cover for all the possible issues that come with owning an investment property, and as a landlord, it’s important to make sure you and your property are fully protected.

Thoroughly check your policy

Many landlords just add an extension to their existing policy instead of purchasing specialist landlord insurance, but that often isn’t going to cover everything that can happen as a result of renting out your property. We advise our clients to look carefully at the specific wording of their policy, and consider how this would apply in situations that might occur. Here are a couple of areas that you should pay attention to.

How does your policy classify an ‘event’?

It’s important for landlords to look very carefully at how their policy classifies an ‘event’ or occurrence of damage, and how excesses apply. For example, if a tenant knocks a number of holes into the walls of a property, some policies will deem each hole to be its own ‘event’ which comes with its own individual excess payment, whereas others will assess the situation as a whole and place only one excess on the numerous holes in the wall.

Do you know your landlord obligations in your policy?

Your ongoing obligations as a landlord will vary between policies, and will be clearly laid out in the wording of your policy. For example, regular routine property inspections are a part of most policies but many landlords, especially those with ‘great tenants’, might not see the need to regularly inspect their property at 3 or 6 monthly intervals, or as outlined by their policy. When you’re making a claim you’ll be asked to provide a history and record of these routine inspections and if they haven’t, you might be at risk of losing your cover completely.