What is landlord legal cover?

Legal cover is optional cover you can add to your residential landlord insurance.

Legal cover can aid in the recovery of rent arrears and provide legal support to defend a prosecution against you that arises from you letting your property. It can even provide cover towards any accommodation costs whilst you are unable to get possession of your property and you wish to live there.

What’s included with legal cover?

Endsleigh’s landlord legal cover will provide you with legal protection up to £50,000 for the following events:

Property damage, nuisance and trespass

Cover for your property or contents if are damaged or affected by a public or private nuisance or trespass.

Repossession

We’ll support with repossession of your property where there are legal grounds to do so.

Recovery of rent arrears

We’ll help to recover any rent arrears if your tenant doesn’t pay.

Prosecution defence

We’ll provide prosecution defence against any alleged offences you’re accused of as a landlord. 

Accommodation costs

 If you are unable to access your property to live in it yourself, we’ll contribute towards the cost of alternative accommodation

What’s not covered?

We cannot cover any legal costs and expenses incurred before we agree to cover your claim. Your property must be let for residential purposes only.

There must also be greater than a 50% chance of successfully pursuing your claim against another person, and any claim must be reported to us during the period of insurance and within 60 days of you becoming aware of the insured event. We will not cover the other party’s costs in criminal cases, fines, penalties or compensation awarded against you.

Do I need legal cover?

If you rely on your tenants’ rent to keep up with your mortgage payments, then you may be looking for additional cover to protect yourself against the risk of tenant default, or other potential costs involved with renting properties.  

Legal cover meets the demands and needs of residential landlords who want to protect themselves, and you can also access a free 24/7 landlord legal advice helpline.

What are my landlord legal requirements?

Landlord insurance has strict stipulations around complying with UK legislation as a landlord, such as the Housing Act and Fire Safety Order. For a list of responsibilities and information regarding UK legislation, please visit the government website.

Outside of your legal responsibilities, there are also a few easy things you can do to build a trusting relationship with your tenants – such as being clear from the outset about who is responsible for certain maintenance tasks in the property. We’ve worked together with the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme (LLAS) to create this handy tenant and landlord responsibility guide for you to download and clear up some confusion when it comes to rental property maintenance and care.

What is legal cover on home insurance?

You can also take out additional legal cover on your home insurance policy, although this will provide slightly different covers to landlord legal cover. Endsleigh’s home legal cover provides the followings: 

• Employment disputes
• Contract disputes – such as disputes over buying or selling goods or services
• Personal injury
• Criminal negligence
• Property protection – such as disputes relating to damage, nuisance or trespass