Why you need Landlord Insurance
If you are the owner of an investment property you want to look after your investment, so taking out Landlord insurance is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Most policies will cover you for any accidents, acts of nature or malicious damage, theft or burglary and can also cover loss of rent due to an insured event so that you can still get paid should something affect your tenant’s ability to live safely within your property.
Prior to COVID-19, most insurers covered landlords for rental defaults so that should a tenant not make rent payments, your insurer would cover you for loss of rent; this was the most common claims that was requested by landlords once rental payments had languished. The government stated in March 2020 there would be no tenancy evictions for 6 months while this pandemic is going on and has thrown so many people and businesses into turmoil, which has had a flow on effect for insurance companies. As a result, they have had to change their policies to keep up with the current climate.
However, if you had Landlords insurance prior to march 28th 2020 your policy may still contain the rental default clause depending on whether your insurer updated your policy or not. These are strange times and have thrown a spanner in many a work. It’s a good idea to check with your insurer and see what the case is for your particular policy.
Contents Insurance
If you’re offering your tenants a furnished property, looking in to contents insurance would be a perfect idea as well. Your furniture and fittings would be covered for any sort of damage or breakages that can occur during your tenant’s lease term. Having contents insurance can also cover features such as carpets, swimming pools, light fittings, paint, wallpaper and ceiling coverings, so even if you aren’t offering a furnished property having contents insurance could be a good idea.
There is nothing more frustrating and costly than having to pay large sums of money for an unexpected event that has caused damage to your property and/or belongings. There’s no way to plan for something like that to go wrong, but you can have adequate fail safes in place to prevent it from costing you an arm and a leg. Having landlord insurance isn’t just a good idea it’s a must have, particularly in times like these.