Landlords buildings insurance cover: what’s the difference?

Article by Eliot Blundell
























Whatever type of property you may own, you are likely to be aware of the importance of insuring it. If you have bought a particular dwelling to let, however, you may want to remind yourself of the importance of arranging specific landlords buildings insurance cover.

What’s the difference?

When assessing the risk of loss or damage they are prepared to underwrite, insurers typically make a careful distinction between properties that are to be occupied by their owners and those that are to be occupied by tenants.

Typically, the latter are considered to pose a greater risk than the former.

Although you may be familiar with the importance of arranging home buildings and contents insurance for your own, owner-occupied home, therefore, you may need to consider the need to seek a let property insurance quote specifically to ensure the adequate protection of property that you own as a landord.

The cover

Landlords buildings insurance cover is typically designed to protect the very fabric and structure of your property against such risks as fire, flooding, smoke damage, impacts from vehicles or falling debris, and vandalism. To this extent, the risks covered may be very similar to standard home buildings insurance.

Just as with many standard home buildings insurance policies, you may also wish to check whether your landlords buildings insurance cover also extends protection against the risk of subsidence (since not all policies do as a matter of course).

Specifically for landlords

With respect to the particular risks associated with let property, you might wish to consider whether your chosen policy affords protection against malicious damage by your tenants. Some policies include such protection as a standard feature, others do not, and still others include it as a feature of selected policies only.

Similar considerations might also apply to the risk of accidental damage to your building – some policies might automatically include it as a standard feature, others might not, but still others may offer you the choice of such on selected policies.

The worst case scenario

Typically, buildings insurance is designed to protect the property owner against the worst case scenario – a catastrophic event that leads to such a total loss of the building that it needs to be entirely rebuilt. The same is true for such cover for let property.

When seeking landlords buildings insurance cover, therefore, you may wish to keep in mind a total insured value that represents not the current market value of your property, but the estimated cost of a complete rebuild in the event of its total loss.

About the Author

Eliot Blundell is Director at specialist CIA landlords provider, CIA who provide a wide range of let property insurance solutions including cover for all tenant types, unoccupied property insurance and landlords rent guarantee insurance












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