Do Landlords Need Contents Insurance?
Being a landlord can leave many people worried about entrusting someone else, potentially a stranger, with essentially looking after your property and perhaps your belongings inside it. Landlords contents insurance is there to cover that your items in your property need replacing or repairing. In such an instance, your insurance will pay out to cover the cost of the lost or damaged property. This includes belongings such as appliances, furniture and furnishings should any of these become damaged or destroyed. If you would like to read more information or learn more about the pricing of business landlord insurance, you can do so here .
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Do Landlords Need Contents Insurance?
Landlords content insurance isn’t required by law, however. You may have thought it was since buildings insurance is required by law for landlords, but, in fact, landlords content insurance is an option depending on your situation. We’d still strongly recommend it to most people renting out a property regardless, though, especially if you provide your property or properties with homeware or furniture for the residents to use.
All kinds of things can pop up today, which means you need to consider taking landlords’ content insurance seriously. Some of the most common reasons that people end up taking out claims on their landlords content insurance include things like accidental damage, storm damage, and most common of all, escape of water.
Not every insurer will provide the same cover, and even with the same insurer, details may change slightly between policies. However, there are some items that the vast majority of offers will have your back covered for.
This includes things such as:
Curtains
Carpets
Light fixtures
Furniture like cabinets, chairs or sofas
Kitchen appliances like sinks, dishwashers or ovens
Paintings
Gardens and their content
An insurer may not list something you’re particularly concerned about as part of their policy in some cases. However, most providers will be willing to listen and work something out. In most cases, you will be able to discuss an add-on to the policy, so you’re not left feeling anxious about something in the house not being covered by the policy.
There may be things other than the circumstances above that you’d also like to be prepared for in case anything should go wrong. Other possibilities on your mind might be related to troublesome tenants, including malicious damage or theft. Not every policy will cover these things automatically. Most providers will be able to accommodate your concerns and work something out if you’d prefer to be insured. Should one of your tenants steal something from the property, you rent them or deliberately damage your contents in the property.
There is also a ‘new for old’ option with many providers that means you will be provided with a new replacement for damaged items. In most cases, there is a value cap to such an offer, however, so you will only be able to claim in this way on contents that are under the value limit.
Landlords content insurance won’t cover you against everything, however. This will change from provider to provider, but there are some things you should never assume are part of the policy you’re looking to take out.
This includes instances such as:
Items damaged due to wear and tear
Contents lost in unoccupied properties due to damage, theft etc
Contents damaged by the escape of water in unoccupied properties
Unprotected contents such as expensive electronics or valuable works of art
There are many more possibilities that you shouldn’t take for granted, so the best approach to take is to take things slow and discuss possibilities with potential providers. This way, you won’t be caught out should something go wrong and not end up covered when you thought you were.
Do Landlords Need Contents Insurance? To Conclude
Insurers are very keen to stay on the right side of their contractual agreements legally. If you spend time with them to find out exactly how different potential situations might unfold, you can potentially save yourself from a nasty surprise in the future. It also allows you to discuss what extras and add-ons you may like, so the policy is better suited to your needs as a landlord. There may potentially be things in a policy that don’t apply to your tenant situation which you could potentially ask to be left out in exchange for the inclusion of something more applicable to you.
Find out more about the importance of insurance here .
Other useful links about Business Insurance:
Building Insurance for Landlords
Landlord Contents Insurance
UK General Landlord Insurance
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