Is your let property insurance up for renewal?

Have you reviewed your landlord’s insurance recently? If not, you may wish consider checking that your let property insurance is still giving you the most appropriate cover for your individual circumstances - and at a sensible price.

The variety of types of insurance available

There are a number of factors which may affect the price and availability of cover. These factors vary from the identity of your tenants to the location and nature of the let property itself.

As a landlord, your tenants may be:

• students;
• professionals
• families; or
• retired people.

Each group may have their own advantages and disadvantages in the eyes of an insurer. Generally, houses that are occupied by students may be perceived as being at a higher risk of being damaged, because students are not famous for taking care of their accommodation.

Working and retired people on the other hand may create an image of tenants who may treat the property as if it were their own.

If the profile of the kind of tenant that you let to changes due to market conditions, then you may wish to review your insurance needs and speak to your insurer.

The risks

What about the risks that are covered by the policy? When you think of let property insurance, your mind may immediately jump to structural issues, but you may wish to consider also what items of yours form the contents at the property. This may be particularly true if you let to students or own a House of Multiple Occupation.

In these circumstances where it may be common for a landlord to provide a bed and a desk, you may wish to make sure that your contents are included within your let property insurance.

Loss of rent

The extent to which loss of rent is covered may depend from insurer to insurer. You may find that your provider may offer loss of rent cover in the event it is caused by an insured risk (e.g. when your tenant moves out because the place has burnt down). However, not all providers may offer this element of cover.

How often may you wish to reassess your cover?

If you have a portfolio of properties then you may already run a professional operation with an official "year end". Accordingly, this may be an obvious moment to review your let property insurance. But you may also wish to diarise the issue for a month or so before your current policy expires. This way you may have enough time to consider the issue thoroughly before the policy expires or renews itself automatically with your original provider.