Residential landlord insurance

Buildings insurance

In case disaster hits and your property gets damaged.

What’s typically covered by buildings insurance?

• damage to your property caused by incidents like fire, lightning, and explosion

• ariel and malicious damage
• escape of water damage

For example:

• a bad storm damages your property’s roof
• your property’s walls are damaged by water escaping from a burst pipe

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• accidental damage to the property caused by your tenants – you’ll need to add our specific accidental damage cover for this
• emergencies like repairing a burst pipe or a boiler breakdown – home emergency cover is designed to take care of these

You can include these optional covers in the same policy, just start a quote and tell us more about your rental property.

Landlords’ contents insurance

In case disaster hits and your contents get damaged.

What’s typically covered by landlords’ contents insurance?

• damage to your property caused by incidents like fire, lightning, and explosion
• ariel and malicious damage, and theft
• escape of water damage

Contents include things like your appliances, furniture, and household goods.

For example:

• the TV and kitchen appliances you’ve provided for your tenants are stolen during a break-in
• a burst pipe in the bathroom causes damage to your contents

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• accidental damage to the property caused by your tenants – you’ll need to add our specific accidental damage cover for this

You can include this optional cover in the same policy, just start a quote and tell us more about your rental property.

Accidental damage insurance

In case your tenant or their guests accidentally damage your property.

What’s typically covered by accidental damage insurance?

• unexpected physical damage to your property or buildings, contents, fixtures and fittings, caused by your tenants or their visitors

Make sure you add the right cover – as well as accidental damage protection, you’ll need to include specific buildings, contents, fixtures and fittings cover when deciding on what you want to insure, depending on the items you want to protect. Start a quote now and put it all together.

For example:

• your tenant drops a heavy object, damaging the flooring
• a lamp you’ve provided for your tenants gets broken while they’re moving in

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• malicious damage caused by tenants, and trace/access – these aren’t automatically included by every insurer, so check your quote carefully

Tenant default insurance

In case your tenants don’t keep up their rental payments.

What’s typically covered by tenant default insurance?

• up to £50,000 rental indemnity across a 12 month rental payment period, if you have to evict your tenants for not paying rent

For example:

• your tenant loses their job and falls behind with their rent. You end up serving notice and need to recover the lost payments.

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• legal advice – our legal expenses cover can help with the legal costs you incur due to tenant default

Property owners’ liability insurance

In case you’re responsible for injuries or damage, as the property’s owner.

What’s typically covered by property owners’ liability insurance?

• legal liability for injuries, accidental loss, or damage, as the owner of the property

For example:

• your tenant’s child trips on a loose skirting board, falling and breaking their shoulder
• a tile comes loose from the roof and damages a car parked outside your property

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• accidental damage to your own property

Landlord home emergency cover

In case the boiler fails, or there’s a plumbing or electrical emergency.

What’s typically covered by landlord home emergency cover?

• emergency boiler repairs and replacements, up to £500
• plumbing, drainage, and electrical emergencies

For example:

• a burst pipe floods your bathroom, making it inaccessible
• the boiler breaks down and your tenants can’t heat the property

What you’ll need additional cover for:

• annual boiler servicing – you’ll need specific boiler cover for this
• escape of water

Legal expenses insurance

In case you face legal costs, as the property’s landlord.

What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?

• repossession – covering your legal costs when trying to regain possession of the property, and appointing a solicitor for you
• property damage – covering your legal costs if over £1,000 of damage is made to your property, and appointing a solicitor for you
• tenant eviction – covering the legal costs of evicting your tenants (if you choose to add our specific tenant default insurance, this can pick up the rental payments they owe you)
• rent recovery – covering your legal costs when recovering rent you’re owed, if it’s late by one calendar month
• tax protection and contractual disputes – representing and negotiating for you, if a full enquiry is made into your personal tax affairs, or during a contractual dispute over goods and services

You’ll also get access to a 24/7 legal advice helpline, for instant support and expertise.

For example:

• your tenant is refusing to pay their rent and you need to begin legal proceedings
• you need assistance when HMRC begin an investigation into your taxes

What if my property is unoccupied?

If you’ve bought insurance for an unoccupied property, you’ll be asked to confirm if the property is expected to be occupied within 60 days of the policy starting.

After this, you must contact us to confirm when the property becomes occupied – if you don’t tell us, this can cause a delay in any claims being processed.

You should also be aware that you can’t claim for lost rent under the loss of rent section of your insurance if your property becomes unoccupied.

What if my tenant’s situation changes?

If your tenant’s employment status changes – or if a new tenant moves in and their employment status is different to the previous tenant – you’ll need to tell us immediately. If you don’t, it could cause a delay in any claims being processed.

Are carpets and curtains covered?

The definition of ‘fixtures and fittings’ will depend on the insurer – sometimes, it will include laminate flooring, carpets, curtains and blinds.

It’s a good idea to check the wording in your policy to understand what’s covered.

Read more about contents insurance for landlords and buildings insurance.

Will tenant default insurance cover me if my property becomes unoccupied?

If your property becomes unoccupied, you won’t be able to make a claim for lost rent under tenant default cover.

This also applies if your tenant falls into arrears and can’t pay their rent, but you’re not planning to evict them. You can only claim for lost rent under tenant default cover if you start repossession proceedings.

Read more about tenant default insurance and rent guarantee insurance.

What if I’m subletting my property?

It’s vital that any tenancy agreement that you have is between you and the occupant of the property.

If the occupant of your property has a tenancy agreement with a third party (such as a letting agency or a local authority) and not you as the property owner, then your insurance policy could be cancelled and you won’t be able to make any claims.