Looking For Landlord Building Insurance
Obtaining landlords building insurance need not be a hassle. Looking for the right cover is all about finding a policy that you can afford and which covers everything you need.
What will providers want to know?
Before giving you a quote you may have to answer many different questions. Accordingly, they may wish to know:
- where you live, your full name;
- the address of the buy to let property;
- the form of tenants you have (e.g. private, professional or retired);
- what state the property is in; and
- whether you have had to make any claims on a buy to let insurance policy there before.
Deciding which policy to buy
You may soon see that the quotes differ between the insurance providers. As a landlord, your landlords building cover is a cost to your business, and as such you may be particularly price sensitive.
Along with the cost of insurance there are other factors you need to consider:
- what negative aspects are covered (e.g. fire, storm, flood, malicious damage, and earthquakes);
- what the exclusions and limitations are; and
- what the excess on the insurance policy is. This is the amount you need to pay towards a claim. If you undergo damage to your property that costs less than the excess, you may have to pay for it to be repaired yourself.
What next?
Once you have taken all of the above into account you can then go ahead and secure the policy. When you take delivery of hard copies of the documents in the post, you may wish to read them thoroughly. In particular, you may wish to check whether you as landlord have any responsibilities under the policy. Do you have to tell the insurer if your resident moves out, or to follow any kind of claims procedure? These things may be better to find out before they happen, rather than after.
