An essential guide to buy-to-let insurance

Renting out your property comes with a great deal of responsibility to ensure the safety of your tenants as well as protect your rental property. Therefore, if you’re a buy-to-let landlord, you should consider purchasing a specific landlord insurance policy rather than a standard home insurance policy. While it’s not a legal requirement to have this insurance, it provides peace of mind that if something was to go wrong you have protected your property investment.

If you’re a landlord and rent out a residential property or have a portfolio of buy-to-let properties, it’s essential to have the right insurance in place to protect your investment. You need landlord insurance that is flexible enough to incorporate all the different types of cover you need and offer comprehensive protection in case something goes wrong.

Buildings cover and contents cover should be at the core of your insurance policy, which could cover you in the event that your property is damaged or your contents are damaged or stolen. If you have added extra buildings to your property, such as a conservatory or shed, get in touch with your insurance company to make sure that your property is covered for the correct amount and you have declared any structures of non-standard construction.

You may also need to increase the sum insured on your insurance policy if you install additional fixtures at your property such as solar panels.

Loss of rent cover is designed to cover your income if your property becomes uninhabitable for your tenants because of unexpected disasters, such as a fire, a flood or storm damage. There are also options available for covering you for theft or malicious damage by tenants, which may cause you to lose out on rental income.

Property owners’ liability is a cover that can give financial protection in the event that there is a large compensation claim against you following an injury on your premises that is deemed to be your fault.

An example of this would be if a slate tile fell off the roof and hit your tenant’s car, you could be liable to pay for the damage, which could be substantial.

Legal protection is an insurance cover that will help you to cover the costs of legal action, whether this is because someone is taking action against you, or you are defending yourself. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done if a tenant doesn’t pay you rent or decides to destroy your property outside of taking them to court, which can be an expensive process.

If you employ anyone to maintain, clean or concierge your property, whether this is full time, part time or freelance, you will need to have employers’ liability insurance. The only circumstance that you may not need employers’ liability cover is if your employee is a member of your family.

Employers’ liability is designed to protect you from any claims made by an employee who injures themselves while carrying out work for your company.