If you are asking the question, what is landlord insurance, you may be at a fairly early stage of your understanding – so the following points may prove to be useful:

• property owners typically wish to protect their property and its contents against a wide range of potential risks – this is due to the substantial sums of money that may be tied up in such assets;

• if you are an owner-occupier, you may be familiar with traditional home buildings and contents insurance;

• however, the moment you start to obtain rental income from a property, even if that is by renting out just a room or two in a property you also occupy, then you have made the transition to being a landlord engaged in a commercial activity – this typically means that owner-occupier buildings and contents insurance may no longer be valid for your property;

• if you have applied for a buy-to-let mortgage on a property, your mortgage contract may oblige you to maintain full buildings insurance at all times and by implication, that means landlords insurance;

• if you are already renting out a property and asking the question, what is landlord insurance, it may suggest that you do not have such cover in place currently and if that is correct, it may be advisable to take corrective action as soon as possible, starting perhaps with a let property insurance quote;

• if you make a claim under an owner-occupier home buildings and contents insurance policy and it is subsequently discovered that your property was being let out in full or part, you may run the risk of your claim being refused and finding it difficult to obtain property insurance in future (insurers may have sophisticated methods at their disposal for checking the occupancy status of a property at the time an incident took place leading to a subsequent claim);

• answering the question as to what is landlord insurance, could involve a fairly simple statement that it typically contains cover for your buildings, your contents and third party liability risks. However, there may also be other factors that are important to you, such as the fact that some policies may allow you to rent to any tenant whereas others may exclude students or DSS tenants etc;

• for that reason, in order to obtain a full answer to the question, what is landlord insurance, you may need to find a little time to read the detail of any potential let property insurance policy prior to deciding that it is suitable for your situation.