Thinking ahead about buildings insurance for landlords
Monday, May 31st, 2010Of course, you don’t have to do any such thing. You could do nothing and hope that your luck holds. The trouble is that when you’re looking at, for example, a great hole in your ceiling caused by that leak, it’ll be too late to start wishing that you had buildings insurance for landlords in place.
Relying on luck
If we were being honest with ourselves, perhaps many of us would admit that we’ve sometimes skimped on one form of insurance or another to try and save money.
Yet as a landlord, your property is your business. Not protecting it may not only put at risk a major asset but also your income.
It is true that a buy to let property or any other form of rental building is not necessarily more at risk than others in some respects but it may suffer from risks of a type that are not applicable to an owner-occupied property.
So, for example, an owner-occupier is typically exceptionally unlikely to go out of their way to deliberately damage their own property. This may not be the case with some tenants.
It’s also the case that a rental property may stand empty more frequently than other types of residential property – if you’re waiting for new tenants or carrying out renovations for example and unoccupied properties are more exposed to a whole variety of risks than those with people living in them.
That’s why as a landlord you are really faced with only two options – relying on luck alone or purchasing a policy providing buildings insurance for landlords.
Other considerations
Your rental property isn’t only at risk in terms of its bricks and mortar. It may have contents, fixtures and fittings. All these are also typically at risk from the usual variety of causes plus those that arise from having tenants in your property.
That’s why some buildings insurance for landlords also typically includes protection in these areas and therefore is effectively a building and contents insurance policy.
It’s also perhaps worth keeping in mind that the typical owner-occupier buildings and contents insurance will not provide you with cover for rental properties. Although it may be tempting to try and save some relatively small amounts of money by using owner-occupier buildings and contents policies, in a crisis and claim situation such policies may prove to be completely invalid.
Building and contents insurance quote for landlords
There are specialist providers of this type of buy to let insurance policy. Having the right buildings insurance for landlords cover in place may provide you with the confidence that your business interests are protected
