Easter is traditionally a time of year when we start thinking about attending to a number of jobs on our properties including aspects of insurance reviews.  That may get you thinking about the cheapest landlord insurance and other related questions.

As part of our service, we are offering here some answers to commonly heard questions on the subject.

How can I get down the cost of my let home insurance?

There may be a number of options open to you, perhaps the two most significant of which might be:

• look around in the marketplace for alternative quotations;

• consider taking a higher excess on your policy.

Of course, the two things may go together when seeking the cheapest landlord insurance.

In some cases, a policy may allow you to obtain up to forty percent discount on your premium if you accept higher levels of excess.

Do I need vacant home insurance?

You may do – and that may apply equally to owner-occupiers.

Both owner-occupier and landlords insurance may contain clauses relating to the fact that the policy will only cover property if it is occupied.

As you might expect, insurance providers typically allow for things, such as holidays, by agreeing to cover unoccupied properties for up to thirty consecutive days on a standard landlords buildings and contents policy.

If you go over those thirty days, your existing insurance may become invalid and you may need unoccupied property insurance to maintain continuity of cover.

Will my insurance cover my tenants?

That rather depends on the nature of the question.

A standard buy to let policy may include third party liability cover.  That exists in order to offer you a degree of financial protection in the event your tenants or members of the public successfully sue you for damages arising from injuries they may have suffered as a result of your property.

It may be advisable to be sure that your policy offers substantial cover in these areas, given the potential size of court awards if you lose.

However, landlords insurance typically does not provide cover for things such as personal injury to your tenants or their accidental destruction of their own property etc.

It may be advisable to encourage your tenants to consider their own insurance position covering such eventualities

Will the insurance help me if I need to take legal action against my tenants?

That may depend entirely upon an individual policy, however, such cover may be unlikely to help in situations where you are pursuing tenants that have fled leaving substantial unpaid rent arrears etc.

What is the cheapest landlord insurance?

That is impossible to answer because what may prove to be the cheapest landlord insurance for another landlord may not strike you as being cheap if it is not suitable for your individual circumstances!