Archive for the ‘landlord insurance’ Category

Renting, it’s the new black.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Believe it or not, this is the phrase I heard someone utter last night. Bumped into a mate who was telling me about his recent moves, he has lived in about three properties I can think of in the last year. He was extolling the virtues of renting to me, in reality he was simply moving from property to property to try and leave behind some of his debts. He was hoping that if the companies couldn’t find him, then they would write off his large credit card debts. Time will tell whether this works out for him, I doubt it very much.

But he did say that renting was the new black and everyone was doing it. Obviously not everyone, but I got the drift. He was telling me that the benefit was that you did not need to worry about maintenance or repairs. If you got a burst pipe you just phone up the landlord and demand it is fixed.

When we moved house in 2007 the recession did not exist, we were told it was a credit crunch at that time. The mortgage market was balanced precariously at the time and although we were buying in Scotland, which has a more stable property market, the chain we were involved snaked throughout England. There were 7 different properties being bought and sold and the whole chain was supported by a first time buyer. Thankfully it all went ahead with just a few hitches.

At the time we considered getting a buy to let mortgage on our old home, in case we could not sell. This is now commonplace, accidental or unintentional landlords are springing up all over the place. Now some of them will have demanding tenants like my mate. If they do, they need to make sure that the have a suitable landlord insurance policy in force. Therefore, when the tenant phones up and demands x or y is fixed, it is relatively easy to speak to your business insurance broker and, as long as you get a couple of estimates quickly, you can get the works undertaken pretty quickly.

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Renting, it's the new black.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Believe it or not, this is the phrase I heard someone utter last night. Bumped into a mate who was telling me about his recent moves, he has lived in about three properties I can think of in the last year. He was extolling the virtues of renting to me, in reality he was simply moving from property to property to try and leave behind some of his debts. He was hoping that if the companies couldn’t find him, then they would write off his large credit card debts. Time will tell whether this works out for him, I doubt it very much.

But he did say that renting was the new black and everyone was doing it. Obviously not everyone, but I got the drift. He was telling me that the benefit was that you did not need to worry about maintenance or repairs. If you got a burst pipe you just phone up the landlord and demand it is fixed.

When we moved house in 2007 the recession did not exist, we were told it was a credit crunch at that time. The mortgage market was balanced precariously at the time and although we were buying in Scotland, which has a more stable property market, the chain we were involved snaked throughout England. There were 7 different properties being bought and sold and the whole chain was supported by a first time buyer. Thankfully it all went ahead with just a few hitches.

At the time we considered getting a buy to let mortgage on our old home, in case we could not sell. This is now commonplace, accidental or unintentional landlords are springing up all over the place. Now some of them will have demanding tenants like my mate. If they do, they need to make sure that the have a suitable landlord insurance policy in force. Therefore, when the tenant phones up and demands x or y is fixed, it is relatively easy to speak to your business insurance broker and, as long as you get a couple of estimates quickly, you can get the works undertaken pretty quickly.

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Landlord insurance – loss of rental income cover

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

We are currently going through a very warm period in the UK, forest fires are everywhere, with many unfortunately started deliberately.

But, as a business insurance broker, we are still dealing with the latter end of some of the harsh winter claims. It may seem a distant memory, but it is not that long ago that we were advising everyone to be careful of burst pipe claims. The winter of 2010/2011 has gone down on record as the worst for burst pipe losses that I can remember. The reason we are still dealing with the remnants of the claims is because of the loss of rental income cover.

If you are a landlord and have a landlord insurance policy, you must, without fail have cover for rent. Too many insurers only offer this as an option and, when you compare the quote with and without the rent, people do still choose to take the cover without rent. It only adds 5 or 10% to the premium and is always, always worth adding. We have one house, where the owner was getting £350 per week rent. A pipe burst in the attic, when the tenants were away for Christmas. The three storey house was, for want of a better word, completely and utterly trashed. Three floors were removed to prevent the whole building collapsing. The works are due to complete about July time and the owner is due to rack up a loss of rental income claim of around £12,000 on top of the £40,000 repair costs.

When we see extreme examples like this, we always thingk it is wrong not to have loss of rental income cover. If you have a policy without it, please give consideration to adding this, whatever the cost. As always, speak to your business insurance brokers as they are the experts in the field, they can get the cover added or look for a cheaper alternative with a different insurer.

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Landlord insurance – contents cover

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Landlord insurance policies, whilst based loosely on a standard household policy, do differ in many ways. With your home, you are much more likely to have one policy that covers the buildings and contents together. Whilst you can split them, most insurers will actively encourage you to place them both together, with different discounts available for the combined cover.

As landlords policies tend to be issued by a commercial insurance company, there are, as you would expect, differences. The main one being that you can obtain cover for loss of rental income (see Saturdays entry).

The other main difference is that you do not tend to get contents automatically included. With the vast majority of let properties being unfurnished, you would expect, quite rightly, the tenant to insure their own contents, because you (as the landlord) do not have an insurable interest in their TV, settees or clothes etc.

However, who is responsible for the carpets, vinyl, linoleum, curtains and possibly white goods in the kitchen? You, as a landlord, are responsible for these items and, importantly, they do not fall under the definition of buildings. Any flooring that can be picked up (even carpets) and moved falls under the definition of contents. It always has done and always will.

We always recommend to customers looking for a new quote that they include contents, even if it is only for a few thousand pounds. It makes such a small difference to the premium that it is foolish to not insure it. But you would be surprised at the number of people that do not want it, even for an extra fiver on their quote. Then, when they have a burst pipe claim and the carpets or curtains are damaged, we have to go through the process of telling them that the cover does not apply as they only have buildings cover.

We do try, and as a business insurance broker, are obliged to point out to the customer their cover requirements. If you need a quote, please always listen to the recommendations of your broker.

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Residential property owners insurance – falling aerials

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Given that the UK is waking up today to some terrible weather, we will be expecting a few claims today, storm related.

Not only do storms cause problems with falling trees and branches, there are now an increasing amount of claims for aerials and, more importantly, satellite dishes. Most landlords insurance policies are base, loosely, on a standard home policy. They have extra covers, such as loss of rental income but also have some cover restrictions.

Whilst it is not something anyone does very often, it is always worth checking your policy wording to see exactly what you are covered for. Many flats and apartments are covered under a block of flats insurance policy. Whilst they are essentially residential properties, you do need to check that you have adequate cover. The best way to do this has always been to use  a business insurance broker. The broker earns a fee, or commission for policies that are sold. So, it is in their interests to make sure that you get the widest cover possible.

The part of your wording you need to check is whether you have “falling objects” cover. The chances are that you will, but this may be just aerials. It is a really small point, but you need to ensure that satellite dishes are included as well.

The longer time goes on, the more likely it is that an old satellite dish will be less secure. If it falls off (and, say, hits a parked car) it could be a big claim. Unless it was recently installed, it is unlikely that you could make a claim against the installing firm.

Taking five minutes to check is always worth it, if you do not have it (the cover) speak to your broker.

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Landlords insurance – multiple properties

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Whilst it is an old fashioned definition, many insurers still refer to policies for property owners as landlords insurance.

In this modern day and age, the term is stil used as people understand what it means and represents. However, you may find if you are looking for a policy that you need to consider exactly what the risk represents. In recent years, pre 2007 of course, buy to let insurance was all the range. Certain builidng societies decided that borrowing money from the markets and throwing it at any Tom, Dick or Harry that wanted a second property was a good idea. We all know what happened though.

Nowadays though the landlord has been replaced by the non-gender specific commercial, or residential property owner. If you are looking for cover for more than one property, you have a couple of choices.

Firstly, you can look around for a separate policy for each and every property. There are few benefits to doing this, you have different renewal dates, there are usually no economies of scale discounts avaialble from insurers.

Secondly, and a better option if you have many properties, is to get one, block policy. This way, you have one renewal date, you can spread the premium across the year and know exactly what you are spending and also insurers will reflect in their pricing the fact that you have chosen to insure mutliple risks with them.

If you need a quote, speak to an independent business insurance broker and let them do all the work for you.

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