Compare the best deals for landlord insurance

How does landlord insurance work?

To explain how landlord insurance works we first need to look at ‘what is landlords insurance?’

The primary purpose of Landlord insurance, like other insurance policies, is to give you peace of mind. Although all investments have risks having a property portfolio presents unique challenges. Landlord insurance is a way of mitigating these risks and safeguarding your investment. Underwriters of buildings and contents insurance may have tenanted property as a policy exceptions. So in case of a claim, if relying on home insurance, you may find your policy invalid. Landlords insurance is particularly designed to offer cover in this scenario.

Packaged insurance for landlords

Landlord insurance can be quite complex. This is because of the multifaceted nature of the protection required to give 360 coverage to a landlord. As such underwriters offer a packaged and combined products. These encompass both mandatory and optional insurances. This type of package insurance considers a range of different exposures simultaneously. Typically these are more economical purchasing each insurance products individually. Click here to read about the different types of insurance typically found in a land lord insurance package.

Underwriters assess the risk of landlord insurance

There are a wide range of companies that will under right of landlords insurance. The underwriter will look at the statistical risk of insuring your property. From this information they will ascertain for which they will offer coverage. This cost will vary significantly from Property Owner to Property Owner. For example a single property owner and multi property owners will require different levels of coverage.

Checking the policy coverage

An insurance underwriter will then offer you a policy for consideration. Typically has very detailed and sometimes slightly complex policy conditions. These note the limitations of the coverage. It is essential when setting up landlord insurance to pay careful attention to this. For example, there are reports of landlords finding their carpets are neither covered by their buildings nor their contents insurance.

Find the best deal

Increasingly landlords working with a third party such as a broker or insurance comparison website. This can be useful for various reasons. Usually people think of this type of service as a way to help them find the best deal. This is certainly one of the benefits. But as landlord insurance can be a complicated, packaged product, there are other benefits to working with a broker. An insurance broker can be an independent advocate, working on the landlords behalf, and talking directly to underwriters to secure the best deal. They are experts who take the time to understand the landlords situation. Using this information they will search for a policy that gives the coverage they need at a price they can afford.

choosing an insurance package.

The landlord then chooses the correct insurance package to meet their needs. Usually this decision is based on affordability. It is essential, after all, that you are making a reasonable profit margin on a buy-to-let property. This decision is usually made whilst considering the levels of risks. Other factors such as excess and policy limitations may also play a part in this decision making process.

Making a claim

In the unfortunate scenario a landlord needs to make a claim typically the insurer will guide the customer through the process. If they have used a broker, they may do this with them as an intermediary. Usually policies require the policyholder to pay an excess. This is usually completed when initiating the replacement process. It is important that if the claim involves malicious or criminal damage you will need to report the incident to the police, and this may be a pre-requisite to making a claim.

Renewals

Landlords can usually look forward to a lower renewal cost at the end of the first years insurance. Like many other insurance policies you can gain discounts of as much as 30% by not claiming on your landlords policy. However if many landlords repeat this process annually to ensure they are getting the best deal.