Buy to let insurance not only protects you against financial losses connected to letting a property but also provides cover for risks associated with a buy to let property such as injury or loss suffered by a tenant because of a fault within the building.
Our buy to let insurance offers two levels of cover – Essential and Premier. Essential covers the basics, while Premier offers an enhanced level of protection for your investment.
However it is worth noting that if you rent out more than one buy to let property, portfolio insurance may offer a better solution.
There are three parts of a buy to let insurance policy, building insurance, landlord contents insurance and landlord liabillity insurance.
Landlord building insurance
Building insurance covers the damage to the structure or fittings and fixtures of the building. It is important to remember that this cover is set at the rebuild value, not the market value or price you paid for the property. And as a landlord, it is your responsibility to calculate and declare the value of your rental property to ensure that it is insured to its full rebuild value. The rebuild cost needs to take into account the price of labour and materials it would take to build a house identical to yours on the land you own.
At Total Landlord, we recommend that you get a professional property valuation at least every five years to make sure it is accurate. There are tools available that help to simplify the process, such as the BCIS calculator or the Association of British Insurer’s online calculator to help you work out the rebuild cost.
Learn how to avoid underinsurance of your property in our guide.
Landlord contents cover
Landlord contents insurance safeguards the repair or replacement cost of the contents inside the home. These are the items owned by the landlord, not the tenant. If tenants want to cover loss or damage of their personal property, they should take out their own contents insurance.
When taking out landlords contents insurance, a good way of assessing how much cover you need is to draft an inventory.
Landlord liability insurance
Landlord liability insurance deals with claims by a tenant or other third party who might have suffered injury or illness related to visiting a buy to let home. A typical landlord liability insurance claim could include trips or slips in the property.
Most landlord buy to let insurance policies would include buildings cover and landlord liability insurance as standard and landlords contents cover mostly extends to furnished lets.
Top tip: Remember to take out landlords contents cover if your buy to let home has free-standing white goods appliances, lawn mowers or other similar equipment.
Buy to let insurance also comes with different levels of cover and deciding which one is right for you comes down to a risk assessment of what could go wrong and the level of cover you need. We offer comprehensive cover and our Premier lost rents, accidental damage to the property or contents and emergency repairs.
Loss of rent cover will pay you, the landlord, if your property is not rented out due to serious damage that makes the home uninhabitable, such as a fire.
The insurance is based on your monthly rental income and the time any rebuilding or repairs are likely to take to complete. We offer this as part of our Premier policy at Total Landlord, get a quote today.
When taking out a buy to let insurance policy, key points to consider when it comes to accidental damage cover are how much a claim could cost and what type of tenants will rent your property.
For example, a house rented to students is likely to suffer more accidental damage than one let by an elderly couple.
Landlords will find most insurers increase insurance premiums for certain types of tenant, however, at Total Landlord we don't penalise you for your renting choices. Uniquely our policies accommodate for housing benefit tenants, students, houses in multiple occupation and working tenants with no difference in cover or price.
Our Essential policy covers you for accidental damage to glass and sanitary fittings and our Premier policy also covers accidental damage by tenants and their guests.
Damage inflicted by burglars breaking in comes under buildings cover, but many insurers do not include claims for tenants damaging the property.
However, we cover this as a standard with our Premier policy, get a buy to let insurance quote today.
