As a landlord, you’ll know that your property needs proper protection. It’s your business and your livelihood as well as an investment and an asset so it’s simply not something you can leave to chance.
Naturally you’ll need to ensure that the right sort of insurance is in place. Standard home insurance isn’t sufficient, as a landlord you have liabilities and responsibilities that a standard buildings and contents insurance policy won’t cover.

There are many variants of buy to let or landlords insurance that will give you peace of mind, covering you for a range of outcomes to ensure that both your income and your investments are protected, here is a short guide to help you ensure that you get the right level of cover at the right price.

1 – Consider the kind of cover that’s required. The starting point would be finding competitive landlords buildings insurance. This would cover your property against the risk of structural damage, storm, fire or flood. It might also cover you against accidental damage caused by tenants. Once this basic level of cover is in place you’ll need to consider what you do or don’t require from the other options available…

a) Contents insurance – if you are renting unfurnished then you probably won’t need this cover. If you are providing furnished accommodation then it’s probably something you want to consider.

b) Loss or rent insurance – this type of cover will protect you against loss of income from periods when the property is empty. It might be something you need, it might be something you can negotiate through a letting agent.

c) Alternative accommodation insurance – if for any reason the property becomes uninhabitable, you will be liable for the cost of accommodating your tenants while the necessary repairs are made. It’s a potential risk that might be worth insuring against.

2 – Insure more than one property. If you have a portfolio of property, an easy way to reduce the insurance cost is to bring all the properties together under one policy. Most insurance companies will be happy to negotiate a favourable deal for a valued customer so it helps here to put all your eggs in one basket.

3 – Consider the level of excess. As with any insurance policy, if you shoulder some of the risk in accepting a higher excess, your premiums will come down. It’s therefore worth giving serious thought to the level of excess you could reasonably afford to pay. If you have a contingency fund to deal with unforeseen emergencies, allocate some of this to your insurance excess, it could end of saving you money in the long term.

4 – Finally, consider the quality of tenant. Professional, well-referenced tenants will bring lower premiums as a rule so it’s well worth being selective in who you choose to rent your property to.

Buy to let and landlords insurance doesn’t have to cost the earth. Taking a few sensible steps can help to significantly reduce the costs of your buy to let insurance.

Author Bio: Academy Insurance are experts in Buy to Let and Landlords insurance. As one of the UK’s leading independent insurace brokers, Academy are able to offer a range of competitive buy to let property insurance policies that a

Category: Finances
Keywords: buy to let insurance, buy to let property insurance, landlords insurance