Landlord insurance

If you have a mortgage, your provider will usually require you to have buildings protection in place. Simple home insurance likely won’t cover rental activities, so securing the right landlord insurance policy is important.

Even if you don't have a mortgage, it’s sensible to protect your property - although it isn't a legal requirement. As a landlord, you are responsible for any damage to your properties - whether you have insurance in place or not. Landlord insurance provides protection for risks involved with owning a rental property (like accidental or malicious damage by tenants, or cover for an empty property).

Protect My Let are a team of experts in landlord insurance (and real people!) who are dedicated to finding you the best landlord cover at the right price.

Just like Endsleigh, Protect My Let are a part of Howden. We’ve joined forces with them to get you the best service possible.

You can still cover single properties with Endsleigh – getting a quote in minutes.

And now you can also cover your whole portfolio with Protect My Let.

Yes! You can get cover for a single residential property with Endsleigh, or your whole portfolio of residential and commercial properties with Protect My Let – also part of Howden.

A residential landlord is someone who lets their property as a living space, for example, a house or flat.

A commercial landlord is someone who lets their property for business purposes, for example, a shop or an office.

Both residential landlord insurance and commercial landlord insurance provide various elements of cover such as buildings insurance, contents insurance, property owners’ liability, unoccupancy cover and more. Each policy will be tailored to fit your requirements as a landlord.

It is the responsibility of the landlord to have buildings insurance in place. It’s not legally required, but if you have an outstanding mortgage, it may be a condition of your mortgage provider.

What happens if my property is damaged and I don’t have buildings cover?

As a landlord, you are responsible for repairing any damage to your properties – whether you have buildings protection or not. You’re responsible for your property structure and exterior of the building along with areas like plumbing, sinks, baths and toilets, electrical work, water and central heating, water and gas pipes and more.

While buying rental properties can be a great investment, those who are new to being a landlord don’t always realise that they may need landlord insurance to protect their properties. Luckily, there are many insurance options available to landlords to protect their let properties and their rental income.

The type of landlord insurance you need for your rental properties will depend on a number of factors, including:

• What type of property are you renting? For example, is it a single residential property, or a block of flats?
• How many properties do you own? If you’re insuring multiple let properties, portfolio insurance may prove cost-effective. But if you're a buy to let landlord with a single property, your requirements may be different.
• Who are your tenants? If you’re renting to students you may want to consider specialist cover for student landlords.
• Will the property be unoccupied? If it will be unoccupied long term, you may want to consider unoccupied property insurance.
• Is it a permanent or temporary let? Is there an assured tenancy agreement in place, or are you renting it out as a holiday home? Howden's holiday home insurance will provide essential buildings insurance protection for your holiday or second home, including properties let through agencies such as Airbnb.
• Is it being let furnished or unfurnished? This will tell you whether you need contents insurance as well as cover for the buildings.

Protect My Let – also part of Howden – pride themselves on the competitive and flexible nature of their policies. They can cover:

Residential properties 

A residential rental property is normally a house, flat or maisonette rented out to a tenant under a tenancy agreement. These types of properties could be let to students, non-students, families, professionals and so on.

Multiple properties or mixed portfolio

Do you have multiple residential or commercial properties, a mixed portfolio of both, or a single property which is let to both residential and commercial tenants (such as flats above a shop)? If so, it could pay to insure them under one policy.

Commercial properties

Commercial rental properties are let to commercial tenants for business purposes. Commercial premises are used by many different types of businesses and vary in size from shops and restaurants to leisure centres and factories.

What is commercial property insurance?

Non-standard properties

Non-standard rental properties are specialist rentals such as holiday homes, buildings of a non-standard construction or unoccupied properties. Rental properties that are affected by subsidence or liable to flooding are also likely to require specialist insurance.

Blocks of flats

If, as a landlord or management company, you own all of the flats or apartments within a single block or complex, you may wish to insure them on a single policy. You can get buildings insurance for flats plus other elements of cover - this will ease the burden of admin and could mean you get better value for money.

There are a lot of up-front costs to take care of when you become a landlord, which could include anything from letting and managing agent fees to the price of property maintenance. Not to mention your mortgage (if you have one). So, you’ll likely to want to save money wherever possible – including on your cost of insurance.

To help you out, we’ve pulled together five simple tips that could help reduce the price of your landlord cover when getting quotes from landlord insurance companies in the UK:

1. Increase your excess

Opting for a higher buildings or contents excess could ultimately reduce the price of your landlord cover – you’ll just need to make sure the excess is set at an amount you’re comfortable paying in the event of a claim.

2. Make sure your rebuild is accurate

It can be easy to over-insure, but unfortunately this can increase the price of your insurance. This is why it’s important to get the rebuild right for your properties. You can find out more about calculating your rebuild here.

3. Consider whether you need portfolio insurance

If you’re renting out multiple properties, you could get a cheaper deal by taking out multi-property insurance – not only that, but it’ll save a lot of time on the paperwork!

4. Avoid unnecessary cover

Think carefully about the protection you actually need for your property. For example, if the property is being let unfurnished you may not require cover for contents.

5. Paying monthly VS paying annually

While paying in monthly instalments is a great way to spread the cost of your insurance, you may pay slightly more to do so. So it’s worth considering whether you would prefer to pay annually to cut down your landlord insurance cost.

Is there a difference between landlord insurance and homeowners' insurance?

Yes, there is. The principles are similar as both covers provide protection against risks associated with damage to a building/its contents. However, there are some key differences that are centred around the fact that landlords receive a rental income through their property and have a responsibility to their tenants.

Home insurance would unlikely cover you if your property was let out to tenants. Landlord insurance provides some crucial additional protection like:

• Protection against loss of rent
• Property owners’ liability insurance
• Alternative accommodation
• Protection for landlord’s contents

It’s a sensible idea to get covered as soon as possible once you’re responsible for a rental property – to make sure you’re always covered against the key risks associated with renting to tenants.

If you have a mortgage, your mortgage provider may require you to have buildings insurance in place from the start of your agreement. In this case, buildings insurance is included with landlord insurance, so the sooner you get your cover in place, the better.

A building valuation will provide an accurate reinstatement cost for your property giving you the information you need to request the right amount of cover from your broker.

BCH is a RICS-regulated company that provides building insurance rebuilding cost valuations via desk-based e-valuations or site-based reinstatement cost assessments (RCA).

Find out more about building insurance valuation services today.

Explore our landlord guides

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What types of landlord insurance are there?

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Property maintenance checklist

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Can I insure multiple properties on one landlord insurance policy?

Do you have more than one property and are looking to find out more about multi-property insurance? Check out our guide.

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How to prepare your property for student tenants

Getting ready to rent to students? Check out our checklist for preparing your property for students to help you get prepared.

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