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Making sure that your buy to let property is adequately covered by appropriate insurance is obviously an important task for any landlord and one where you may consider it to be time well spent. The good news, if you have more than one property, is that with the best property portfolio insurance cover, your task doesn’t have to be any more difficult or time consuming.

The best property portfolio insurance for you may be a policy specifically tailored to your own unique group of properties and circumstances.  As such what another landlord may consider to be the best multi-property landlords insurance cover for them, may be very different indeed.

Providers of this type of cover may typically be able to offer premium discounts.

It is not just in the area of multi-property cover that you may find that landlord house insurance policies vary from one provider to another.

Loss of income

Some policies for example, may be able to offer you compensation for loss of rental income under certain circumstances where your tenants have to move out of your property if it has been damaged and you need to complete repairs.

This compensation may typically be payable (up to a defined maximum) if the damage to the property was caused by an insured risk like lightning, earthquake, storms and flooding, fires and smoke etc.

Public Liability

Situations may arise where a member of the public is injured or their property is damaged and they claim that this is somehow the fault of your property and perhaps the way that it has been maintained. If they decide to sue you, a court may award significant damages against you.

Public liability cover of up to £5m may be available with some buy to let policies and may also cover legal fees which may be payable even if you win the case.

All types of tenant

If you let your property or properties to a variety of different tenant categories then you may feel that a policy which excludes cover for students or DSS is too restrictive for you and you may appreciate the flexibility that a policy which covers all tenant types may bring to you.

Damage protection

Not all policies these days may offer financial protection for you in cases where your property is damaged by subsidence or perhaps even maliciously by your tenants. If this is important to you, it may be worth looking out for.

What’s best

The best property portfolio insurance can help to maximise your confidence and peace of mind that your assets are adequately insured and if there is the added bonus of reduced administration on your part and premium savings, then so much the better.

Insuring a business is not optional or dependent on the company type, its size or the annual financial turnover; all UK businesses and trades people need to have adequate Public liability insurance cover.

Trades peoples’ policies offer additional comprehensive cover for events that are inapplicable in most business sectors whilst offering a standard safety net against claims against the company.

It is much more likely that a trades person will at some point have a claim brought against them, especially if suppliers, customers or sub-contractors visit their workplace. It would be so easy for a visitor to slip on a wet floor or sustain injuries caused by a member of the team’s misuse of equipment.

Similarly, if work needs to be carried out work on premises belonging to a customer or a in a public place, there are literally dozens of potential risks which UK Public liability insurance will provide cover for. These obviously include personal harm to individuals but also any damage to their property and belongings.

Public liability insurance cover also looks after tools, equipment and supplies whilst they are your responsibility and are being transported. These items would not only be very expensive to replace if they were damaged or stolen but could also impact negatively on the trades person’s current contract or job.

The construction industry and its associated trades employ a huge percentage of the UK workforce and due to the type of work carried out; it isn’t surprising that a large number of accidents occur within this sector. It is important to note that not all accidents happen as a result of non-compliance with health and safety legislation or are caused by negligence. However, due to the very nature of the work and the inherent danger associated with the tools and materials used within the industry mean that incidents are simply more likely to occur.

As with all types of insurance, the precise public liability cover will vary between policies so it is vital to check exactly what is included in your policy and ensure that you purchase adequate cover.

Quotes for Public Liability Insurance Cover can be obtained at Specialist Risks

If you are in the process of starting to let out property for the first time, you may find the following tips to be useful when you are considering landlords insurance:

• remember the principles – typically, if you are using property for the purposes of generating rental income then you are a landlord and will typically require let property insurance rather than owner-occupier cover;

• do not be misled by rumour and myth – in the event that you had to make a claim, contrary to what some may believe, insurance providers may have sophisticated means of checking the exact occupancy situation of the property concerned. If they find that you have owner-occupier cover for property that has tenants in it (even if they only occupy a part of your property) then you may find your claim is refused;

• think carefully about your requirements – for example, if you are letting out your property on an unfurnished basis then there may be no obvious reason why you should be paying for buildings and contents insurance when perhaps a buildings only policy may be perfectly adequate;

• shop around for your landlords insurance – different providers of this type of insurance may have very different elements of cover in their policies and their pricing structures may also be significantly different, with some perhaps being more suitable for you than others;

• think about tenants/1 – some policies may offer cover against malicious damage caused by your tenants though this is by no means universal in all such policies;

• think about tenants/2 – remember that if you are successfully sued for damages arising from injuries to one of your tenants, then a court may award very significant sums against you, so having a healthy provision for third party liability cover in your policy may be highly advisable;

• think about tenants/3 – some policies may offer cover for a loss of rental income if your tenants are forced to move out due to a problem arising which is an insured risk on your policy;

• do not forget subsidence – the costs associated with serious subsidence problems may be potentially ruinous if you need to pay them out of your own pocket, which is why those policies that provide subsidence cover may prove to be very attractive. Although once commonplace in property policies, it is no longer necessarily always included as standard on all policies providing landlords insurance or owner-occupier home buildings and contents cover.