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If you have a number of properties that you are letting out then you may appreciate anything that makes your life administratively easier and possibly also more cost-effective.

A multi property insurance policy just might be just one example of how to start achieving that:

• if you have a number of properties under management, you may well find the frequent need to check insurance renewal dates and premiums to be one of the less enjoyable aspects of your day-to-day business operations;

• insurance is something that may prove to be critically important to you but that doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to enjoy having to deal with it;

• that may be true enough even if you are only letting out a single property but it may be considerably more the case if you have several;

• fortunately, some insurance providers offer what they may describe as property portfolio insurance;

• as the name suggests, this means that they will offer cover for a range of your properties under the one policy and administrative structure;

• the advantages of this may be very real.  For example, you may only have one annual renewal date to worry about, one premium to pay and only one company to deal with as opposed to several;

• the cost effectiveness may also be improved due to the fact that, as you might expect, insurance providers may offer preferential premiums because they are obtaining a more substantial chunk of business from you than might be the case if you were discussing only a single property with them. In other words, you’ll be a bigger fish in the pond and that is sometimes beneficial in terms of service and pricing;

• different insurers may offer property portfolio cover under different minimum qualification criteria.  For example, some may insist upon a minimum of four or more properties to obtain such cover, whilst others may have lower thresholds;

• the basic principles of your rental property insurance cover may not be significantly different to those associated with an individual policy.

Of course, as with the case of individual property cover, it is necessary to read the policy carefully in order to establish that it is suitable for your needs and circumstances.  That should also include, in detail, its terms and conditions.

Shopping around is typically advisable and there may be no benefit in simply jumping for the first policy that you see.

If you are looking for cheap taxi insurance company quotes and private hire insurance, you need to find an insurance company that is prepared to give you the best incentives. With increased competition, insurance companies offer lower quotes and incentives to attract and retain customers. Unlike general motor insurance companies, the taxi insurance companies only have a relatively small pool of customers to maintain. One good offer from an insurance company in competition and some offices will have to close up shop. Most insurance companies are prepared to offer specialty products, which help to reduce premiums in return for loyal patrons.

Try to find a cheap taxi insurance company and private insurance quote rental that come with all-inclusive offers. These offers usually include additional coverage for your vehicle.

The incentives that may be included in the offers of insurance companies are:

Matching Insurance Quotes
Most insurance companies are willing to match the insurance quote given by their competitors by taxi. However, make sure you go through the terms and conditions before you make a final decision. Some insurance companies have exclusions in their policies to reduce their quote. So be sure that all coverage required are included in the policy.

No Claims Discounts
If you have not had any previous claims, then there is a good opportunity to get a discount. Some insurance companies offer as high as 50% off if you have had no claims in at least 4 years. Make sure you read the small print of the policy that you intend to leave.

fleet insurance
Multiple taxi owners are able to get cheap taxi insurance by switching to the insurance companies that offer fleet insurance. Insurance companies offer bigger discounts when you take enormous fleet insurance under one policy. If you take taxi insurance for each vehicle, it might be expensive. To get a discount with fleet insurance, make sure your drivers meeting the rules defined by the insurance companies, fleet insurance might otherwise be expensive.

First Year Discounts
If you start a new business, most insurance companies offer huge discounts in the first year. This will help management to save considerably in the year in which your capital expenditure is likely to be high.

Always buy insurance from a reputable taxi insurance company like taxiprotection

There are a lot of things a landlord has to think about when getting a property ready to be let out – unfortunately, it’s not as simple as getting some tenants in. You have obligations to fulfil and expectations to meet!.

Some of these may be cosmetic in nature, like repainting the property or giving it a good clean out, or the may involve having appropriate landlord insurance in place to help protect your investment.

There are other aspects of any letting that may be legal requirements for landlords, so making sure these are on a list of things to do may typically be a good idea.

Fire safety regulations

There are fire safety regulations in place for furniture and upholstered furnishings including items such as including beds, mattresses, sofas, cushions etc and checking everything over for labels declaring conformity to the standards may typically make sense.

Any furniture made before 1988 may not meet these regulatory standards and your simplest option may be to replace them.

Safety of gas and electric appliances

You may find that you have a legal obligation to have gas appliances checked and serviced annually plus prior to any new let.

You also have to provide your tenants with a copy of a safety certificate for the gas appliances as well as instructions on how to use them.

All electric wiring should also be checked on a regular basis and if you are leaving electrical appliances for your tenants to use these should be checked and serviced.

Tenancy agreement

When you let a property to tenants, you are entering into a legal agreement, which confers certain rights to your tenants as well as their roles and responsibilities – and importantly yours.

To protect everyone’s interests you should insist on the use of a formal letting agreement, which clearly sets out who is responsible for what and under what circumstances. This could save you heartache and problems further down the line.

This agreement should include:

• how and when the rent is to be paid;
• how long the period of the let is;
• the notice period that you or your tenant is require to give to terminate the let early;
• your responsibilities for maintenance of the property;
• other charges that may be levied in addition to the rent like service charges, council tax etc.

Deposit

In all likelihood, you might ask your tenants for a deposit prior to them moving in to your property. This would cover the costs of any damage they may cause to the property or cover your rental income losses if they left without giving due notice.

At the end of the rental period, you have to repay the deposit to your tenants (minus any sums retained for valid reasons) and there are a couple of options open to you to ensure that you have this money available if and when it is needed:

• a custodial scheme, where the deposit is held by an authorised third party;
• an insurance scheme, where the landlord may be able to retain the deposit and pay an insurance premium.