Unoccupied property insurance

If your property is unoccupied for a period of 30 days or more, it’s often classed as ‘unoccupied’, or vacant – depending on the vacancy period defined by your insurer. Whether it’s due to renovation work, in a sale chain or between rental agreements, specific risks do come with vacant properties, so unoccupied house insurance, or cover for a flat or commercial property, is a popular landlord cover.

Our tailored unoccupied property insurance policies can cover common incidents like fire, lightning or explosion damage, or earthquake and aerial incidents, as well as your own liability as the owner, for third party damage or injury caused by your vacant property.

This will depend on your specific circumstances, the type of empty property you’re insuring and various other factors. Right now, our landlord policy prices start from £9.53 per month.

To work this out, 10% of our customers paid up to £114.35 a year for a landlord buildings cover only policy between 1st April 2023 – 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £9.53 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you’ll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Home insurance is required when you want to insure the home you’re living in against accidental loss or damage.

Landlord insurance is different – it’s required when you own a property that you rent out to a third party, and don’t live in yourself. It covers different insurance risks from a home policy, taking into account the type of tenant you rent to and how long you’ve owned the property. It also allows you to insure the property and protect yourself against things like loss of rental income, and malicious damage caused by your tenants.

You aren’t legally required to take out a specific landlord policy, but remember – a conventional home insurance policy won’t cover you for rental activities, and a mortgage lender will usually demand you have specific landlord cover in place, before you let your property.

Popular covers include property owners’ liability and contents insurance, for accidents on your property, plus buildings cover to protect the property itself.

You can add a range of other important covers to your landlord insurance policy, all while keeping it simple with a single premium and a single renewal date. You might consider these covers:

• Landlord insurance
• Commercial landlord insurance
• Buy to let insurance
• Building insurance
• Multi property landlord insurance
• Residential landlord insurance
• Alternative accommodation

As we’ve outlined above, there’s currently no legal obligation to take out a dedicated landlord insurance policy. However, a home insurance policy won’t cover you for the specific risks you and your tenants face, and a mortgage lender will usually require you to have buy-to-let insurance in place too, before renting out your property.