Finding cheap landlord insurance
Times may be hard and finding economies an absolute necessity. As part of that, looking for cheap landlord insurance may be perfectly understandable. Yet trying to do without landlord insurance altogether may be a major mistake.
A false economy
If you are looking for buy to let home insurance, you may notice that prices typically appear to be little higher than for some owner-occupier policies.
As most of us need to watch our bank balance, you may be tempted to:
- do without insurance;
- use an owner-occupier policy for things such as building and contents insurance;
- ask the tenants to supply their own insurance.
All of these routes may prove very risky and they’re unlikely to give you much if any protection at all.
Cheap landlord insurance versus other options
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to starting thinking about comparable owner-occupier policies because the two situations are significantly different.
It doesn’t matter if the property concerned is a single room in your house or a complete flat in a larger block, once you rent it out it becomes a commercial property.
The period of rental is also irrelevant – if you let your house out for only 4 weeks per year during the summer then that activity is still considered commercial.
Once you start taking income from property rental then you become a landlord. Your legal responsibilities change.
So once you have a legal definition of being a landlord and your property is being used for commercial purposes, ordinary owner-occupier simply will not cover your activities.
It would be a serious misperception to believe that buy to let insurance companies cannot find out if your property is owner-occupied. They can! If you make a false declaration or claim relating to the nature of occupancy you may find your claim is rejected and you may also you have great trouble in securing insurance in future.
Finally, it is a myth that you can pass off your insurance liabilities to tenants:
- in the case of your public liability insurance (for injuries to tenants or visitors on or around your property) the law will look to you no matter what insurance the tenants may have;
- in the case of buildings and contents insurance, even if it were possible, you may wish to ask yourself whether you would trust your assets into the care of insurance that your tenants may or may not have.
Cheap landlord insurance exists
For all these reasons, it may make sense to ensure that you have the good solid protection of a landlord or buy to let insurance policy behind you.
Yes, the prices may be a little higher but your risks are probably also greater.
There are specialist providers of cheap landlord insurance on the internet that may be able to help put your mind at ease.
Tags: landlord insurance