A brief guide to buy to let buildings insurance

When you acquire a buy to let property, your main focus may be on the fact that is in an asset that may contribute to a comfortable retirement for you. Or, perhaps it is nest egg that you hope may help to fund your children through university or get them onto the property ladder? While it is exciting making plans and potentially watching your investment work hard for you, it is important not to forget the less ‘glamorous’ side of being a landlord and arranging things such as your buy to let buildings insurance. It may be a very important part of protecting your precious asset.

How much will it cost?

There are a number of things which may affect the price of your buy to let building insurance. For example, an insurer may take into account:

• the location of the property. This is relevant from the point of view of the potential risks it may face from crime and/or flooding. Given that these are issues that you are likely to have borne in mind yourself when purchasing the property, your insurer’s attitude may not come as a surprise.
• the value of the property. In this sense, the way in which prices for buy to let building insurance may be worked out may be similar to that for your owner occupied property;
• the type of tenants that you have. For example, in some cases, landlord’s insurance may be less expensive for homes for professional tenants than for students because the former may be perceived to take more care of the building; and
• the history of any claims that may have been made on the property. If claims have been made previously for structural issues, you may find that an insurer may want full details before being able to give you a price.

What does the cover give you?

Of course, once you have received the price for the quote, there is more to consider than price alone. You may wish to weigh up what you would actually be getting fro your money. Does the price include any element of contents cover or legal cover? The degrees of these covers included may vary between providers, so these are issues that may be worth checking in some detail of this is of concern.

Likewise, you may also wish to compare lists of the risks that your buy to let building insurance may cover. Whilst the exercise may seem to be tempting fate, at least you would know where you stood if there was an earthquake that affected your buy to let UK property!

Finally, don’t forget that we are only a telephone call or email away. So, if you need a landlords insurance quote or simply some help and guidance on choosing buy to let buildings insurance, then we will be very happy to help.