House Insurance Comparison

Looking for cheap landlord insurance is a matter of opinion. If you are a large corporate landlord with hundreds of properties on your books, then your idea of what a cheap policy is may be vastly different from someone who lets out one buy to let flat.

Likewise, your concept of a cheap policy may also depend on what you want from an insurer. You may wish to consider if the policy is just a basic one of if it gives you everything?

Insured risks

Cheap landlord insurance may typically cover similar dangers to any other kind of deal, which may include fire, malicious damage, earthquake, storm, and somewhat bizarrely damage caused by items falling from aircraft.

Not only may the policy cover the costs of damage caused by these risks, but it may also cover any loss of rent you may have suffered because the tenant cannot live there while the property is being repaired.

How much will it cost?

The price of cheap landlord insurance protection, just like the price of the buy-to-let property itself, may depend on location, location, location. You may find that if your buy to let is in a postcode with a history of crime or flooding, prices for insurance premiums may be higher than they would be for drier, crime free areas.

Once you have received some buy to let insurance quotes, why not ask around to see if a concession is available? You may find that some providers may offer cheap landlord insurance to people with a portfolio of properties to cover, or perhaps to those who have not made many claims on policies before.

Unoccupied property

Now and then it is a fact of life as a landlord that your property falls empty. Perhaps you have a break between tenants, or need to catch up on some painting and decorating. But sometimes empty days may turn into weeks, which then turn into months. At this point, you may want to consider unoccupied property insurance.

Unoccupied property insurance cover may be different from standard cheap landlord policies because providers may perceive that an “empty” property may be more at risk from:

• attacks by arsonists;
• disproportionate flood damage (as there is no one there to alert you immediately); and
• malicious damage, because criminals may notice that the property is empty and target it.

Any property that is left for 30 days may be classed as being unocupied so ensure you have the right insurance.

Looking for landlord’s building insurance need not be a hassle. As long as you have your details to hand when you are making your search for the right policy for your individual needs, you may be able to find appropriate cover and put it on risk in a matter of minutes.

What will providers want to know?

Insurers may want to know about you and your property before giving you a price and details of a draft policy. Accordingly, they may wish to know:

• your name, age and address;
• the address of the buy to let property;
• the sort of tenants you have (e.g. private, professional or retired);
• how the property is at the moment; and
• whether you have had to make any claims on a buy to let insurance policy there earlier.

Deciding which policy to buy

When you have got a number of quotes, no doubt price may be an important factor in helping you choose between the available polices. As a landlord, your landlord’s building insurance protection is a cost to your business, and as such you may be particularly price sensitive.

But in addition to price, there may be other issues to take into account. You may also wish to consider:

• what possibilities are covered (e.g. fire, storm, flood, malicious damage, and earthquakes);
• the small print and limitations; and
• what the excess on the insurance protection is. Given that the excess is the level below which the insurer will not accept a claim, this may be an important factor. If you suffer damage to your property that costs less than the excess, you may have to pay for it to be repaired yourself.

What next?

Once you have taken all of the above into account you can then go ahead and secure the policy. When you obtain hard copies of the documents in the post, you may wish to read them thoroughly. In particular, you may wish to check whether you as landlord have any responsibilities under the policy. Do you have to tell the insurer if your lodger moves out, or to follow any kind of claims procedure? These things may be better to find out before they happen, rather than after.