I recently read an article I thought might interest you that discussed the mindset of Britons throughout the ages in terms of their notion of Household ownership. I find this an interesting topic, as we are currently experiencing a great deal of shift from the heavy household ownership historically seen in the UK.

A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Housing has shown that there is a widening gap of people who do not meet the adequate requirements to receive social help in terms of housing from their local authorities, but yet are not in an economic state to move into property ownership.

The current economic climate has forced the hand for these people, who have turned to rented accommodation in these times. Renting of your home is indeed very common on the continent, and as we become more and more a global community, I believe we are seeing a change of emphasis towards rented property, currently accelerated by the state of the economical market. Whether that is entirely down to the state of the current financial climate; or a genuine change of emphasis in the mindset of the upcoming generation towards renting a home; remains to be seen.

In the cut-throat world of the housing market, it is important to remember there are also many unoccupied homes currently up for rental, and the suitable Let Property Insurance or Unoccupied Property Insurance must be in place to give you the peace of mind that you deserve. If you have any queries regarding your Landlords Insurance, please do not hesitate to contact us at Cover4 on 0800 970 7172.

Many Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Robin

This rise in tenant demand is in sharp contrast to the fall in the number of new properties being offered to rent – this figure has fallen six percent in the last three months. The lack of buy to let mortgages is causing difficulty for new landlords to enter into the market and for current landlords to expand their portfolios to accommodate for such a demand.

This has also had an effect on the reliability of tenants; working-professionals are now at risk of losing their jobs and experiencing redundancy leaving them unable to afford their rent. This would perhaps suggest that DSS tenants could provide to be a safer option, with their rent coming directly from the government. If a DSS tenant was to fall into arrears, it is possible to inform the Housing Benefit Association, which depending on the situation, could arrange for their benefit to be paid directly to you.

The current climate is leaving landlords with a lot to think about. But one thing’s for sure, you can guarantee that your property insurance is in safe hands. If you have any concerns, please contact a member of the team on 0800 970 7172.

Jade

Let’s try to explain.

Why insurance companies care

Insurance companies typically need to understand as much as they can about the risks they’re taking on.

From their statistics, they know that typically an empty or unoccupied property is at greater risk to a variety of problems than one that’s occupied – by tenants or owners.

What are these risks? It varies but they may include:

• structural faults arising that are not noticed and quickly dealt with;
• the property is more attractive to vandals and perhaps burglars as their risks of discovery are lower;
• there may be a higher chance of cumulative damage arising because nobody was there to notice it at the earliest stage – leaking pipes leading to flooding may be one example.

So, insurance companies typically need to provide specific cover if a property is going to be left empty. That’s often called unoccupied property insurance. It is important to note that not all vacant property insurance policies may cover all the risks highlighted above, so do always check if you are unsure as to what the cover entails.

The definition of empty

This may vary between insurers but typically a definition is used of being unoccupied for more than 30 consecutive days.

Interestingly, this definition may apply equally to both landlords and owner-occupiers.

Leaving your property empty without having the appropriate insurance protection, may risk invalidating any owner-occupier home buildings and contents insurance or buy to let insurance you have on the property.

Causes

This position is not typically linked to any individual cause. It may arise due to:

• extended holidays;
• business assignments overseas;
• properties under probate;
• properties in between lettings;
• properties under redecoration or refurbishment etc.

In all these cases and many more, it would be highly advisable to take insurance advice on whether or not empty property cover is required.

Our help

Of course, we recognise that sometimes your precise situation may not appear to fit any given examples. You’re an individual and your circumstances will be unique to you.

We would be only too happy to discuss your specific circumstances and provide whatever help we can, if indeed you need it, to help you ensure that you have the appropriate unoccupied property insurance protection in place.

The challenge for us as a business that receives enquiries online is to start working out how an owner of a commercial property searches on the internet for their insurance – what words do they use to search – perhaps they are not even looking or do they type in Business Insurance!

Having looked around the internet I am confident our new online solution is going to be both user friendly and competitive – two of the most vital ingredients.

We can already offer you quotations for Commercial Prroperty Insurance so please remember to simply call us freee on 0800 970 7172 and we can discuss your requirements.

Have a good day.

Richard

An exciting Scheme is being launched on September 6th to help promote the benefits of being a good landlord, called the Thames Gateway Landlord Accreditation Scheme. The Scheme promotes the improvement of safety standards and being fuel efficient and is  voluntary for any landlord. The Scheme gives either a bronze, silver or gold award to landlords depending on the properties heating, level of insulation, annual gas safety records and draughtproofing.

The benefits of the accreditation are that landlords can be invited on a course for how to begin and end tenancies, newsletters, leaflets and advice. A similar Scheme has already been set up in London and has been hailed as a success, and many more areas are expected to set up schemes.

To apply simply contact the Southend On Sea Council Housing team on 01702 215002.

Mike

It is important to note that what you consider to the cheapest or best landlord insurance for your circumstances may be different to another landlord’s perception of what is cheap landlord insurance cover or the best let property cover.

The extremes

For some, getting cheap landlord insurance may just be as simple as looking down a list of prices and selecting the lowest.

Hoping for the best that the savings on premiums will more than cover your contribution to the costs of any future claim may be one way of looking at it – but it may not seem like such a good idea further down the line if you actually have to pay up more than you hoped for.

At the other end of the scale, some landlords may just opt for the most expensive and assume that this must be the deal that provides the widest cover.

The reality

The reality of what constitutes cheap landlord insurance may in fact lie somewhere in between and may depend on just what level of cover you’re actually looking for.

There are some basic categories of cover that it may be wise to consider.

Buildings cover

The most basic must have if you are a responsible landlord.

Buildings insurance may typically cover your bricks and mortar from the financial effects of damage from events or perils like:

• storm;
• flood;
• fire;
• earthquake;
• hurricane etc.

This cover can range from the repair costs right up to the rebuild costs of your building if it is destroyed completely.

Buildings cover typically also includes public liability insurance that may help rotect you from claims by the public that they were injured or their property damaged by your building as a direct result of your negligence.

Of course, it is important to note that policy features and benefits can vary and what one provider offers may not automatically offered by another, so it makes sense to ensure you know what the cover entails.

Unoccupied property cover

Even in the most buoyant economic conditions you may struggle to achieve 100% occupancy of your rental property.

There will be times when your property is empty. This could be as a result of something planned like renovations between rentals or just down to not being able to find new tenants.

Whatever the reason, the risks a building faces are different when its empty and specific unoccupied property cover may be a sensible idea.

An empty property is usually one that has been vacant for 30 days or more.

Contents cover

Landlords contents insurance is something that you may well feel you can do without, particularly if your property is let unfurnished. However, if your rental property is rented out fully furnished or part furnished, then you may prefer to spend a bit more and get the added peace of mind offered by contents insurance cover for your belongings.

You could also give some consideration to whether you would be looking for new for old replacement or just market value cover.

Summary

No two insurance policies are exactly alike and the same applies to landlords and rental properties. Taking a little time to understand the differences in cover provided can help ensure that your so-called cheap landlord insurance is at a realistic price without having to compromise on the protection offered.

At Cover4LetProperty we can give some handy hints and tips that we hope are of assitstance to you, we hope you agree and find this of use:

Ensure Adequate Safety Checks

Landlords should ensure that the property is safe, it must for example have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) checked by a competent assessor and a CORGI certificate for gas. You as Landlord should also arrange checks on alarms, fore alarms regularly. Furniture should also comply with fire regulations.

Vacant properties need to be checked every 7-14 days (as a warranty on most policies) by you or your representative.

Make sure if you have a mortgage lender that you have let the property

A landlord should ensure that they inform the mortgage lender they are letting the property as failure to do so is a breach of the agreement. This could lead to problems later on.

Have a trustworthy maintenance procedure

When letting your property, most tenants want to have the security of knowing that if something goes wrong that you have an adequate “back up” plan. An agent is a good idea, or as mentioned earlier a neighbour who will look out for you. Some landlords only purchase properties within their local area so that they can do the checks themselves.

Check your policy at renewal

It is vital to update your policy every year and if anything changes to let your insurer/intermediary know. These can be things like the rebuild value or the property becoming vacant etc. Material changes are very important to refer to Insurers to ensure accurate information is relayed at all times.

We are here to help!!! Cover4LetProperty 08009707172

Mike

You’re a landlord!

It’s sometimes hard to grasp that your property has suddenly become a commercial concern.

Of course, if you purchased it specifically for rental purposes then you may also have considered buy to let insurance but you can also drift into becoming a landlord rather more unintentionally. It’s surprisingly easy.

It’s worth looking at any existing insurance you have to find the precise definitions. If you do, you may find that your existing owner-occupier buildings and contents insurance is no longer valid the moment you:

• start to rent your property out that you previously occupied exclusively as an owner-occupier;
• rent out a part of your property (in some cases this may even include just a single room);
• rent out all or part of your property occasionally ( eg. for holiday purposes);
• rent out a property which is part of a much larger block.

Finding out that your buildings and contents insurance is invalid is not something you’ll want to experience as part of a claim. Not unless you enjoy potentially paying out large sums of money that is!

Having appropriate landlord insurance

That’s why landlord insurance may be very important to you – it means that you are covered against a number of risks to your property and contents even if it’s currently being used in part or total for rental purposes.

A typical landlord insurance policy provides cover for the following, though do note that policy features and benefits do vary among buy to let insurance providers, so not all of these may be available with all policies:

• building related risks such as damage due to natural causes (typically including fixtures and fittings) etc;
• contents cover for things such as theft and destruction via various forms of specified disaster;
• third party public liability (important in terms of tenants’ claims etc);
• some types of legal fees – where these arise in relation to insured risks;
• some forms of loss of income arising from an insured risk (but this typically won’t include tenants that flee leaving you with large arrears of unpaid rent).

Typically a policy of this type won’t cover employers’ liability.

It may also be important to consider whether or not your property is likely to stand empty for more than 30 consecutive days in between rentals or for refurbishment. If that is a possibility, and it’s very easy for that to happen during renovations or redecoration, you may need to consider unoccupied property cover.

Don’t try and make do

It’s well worth avoiding the temptation to try and make do with a classic owner-occupier insurance policy for your property rather than appropriate buy to let insurance.

If you need to claim, insurance providers do have ways of checking the occupancy status of your property. Not only may your claim be rejected but you may also find it difficult to obtain insurance in future and you may be guilty of making an insurance claim under false pretences. It’s perhaps a set of circumstances well worth avoiding.

The good news is that landlord insurance cover need not be cost-prohibitive and may only cost slightly more than a traditional owner-occupied home buildings and contents policy, so looking at your protecting your investment may be your next step.

The following will not need to be registered with a tenancy deposit protection scheme:

• Resident landlords (those living in the property)
• Landlords of tenancies with rent of over £25,000 a year *
• Company lets
• Student accommodation let directly by Universities or Colleges.

* This amount will rise to £100,000 from 1st October 2010

In addition to these, deposits taken before 6 April 2007 do not need to be protected by a scheme. However, as an existing tenancy is renewed and a landlord agrees a new fixed-term tenancy, the initial deposit taken must then be lodged with a tenancy deposit protection scheme.

If you don’t protect your tenants’ deposits when required to, your tenants can take you to court and you may have to repay them their deposit plus three times the amount of their deposit. You will also be unable to seek possession of your property in certain circumstances.

If you have any questions or queries relating to the topic there are websites providing information on this such as; www.direct.gov.uk and www.depositprotection.com.  

We are also always here to provide you with any assistance you may need on 0800 970 7172.

Many thanks,

Jade

We are based in Southend and so we know all about this peril, we actually had problems with landslip a few years ago and are still recovering even now. The reason subsidence cover is so important is the level of cost involved, this can be tens of thousands of pounds.

It is important to remember that we do not cover subsidence in a variety of instances (such as faulty design or workmanship) but we do include this cover as standard on all of our tenanted property policies.

As someone whom has worked in insurance for 1o years I have seen the problems with this and things like ground heave,where the ground swells up with water and damages the foundations of the property.

Make sure you have the right cover, we are always here to advise on 0800 9707172.

Thanks

Mike