As with many kinds of cover, a simple landlords insurance guide needs to take into account the wide range of different types of buy to let insurance. Although there may be similarities with standard home building and contents insurance, there are additional features of particular interest to landlords:

Common features

Buildings

• just as you might find in your own home insurance cover, insurance of the structure and fabric of a buy to let property typically forms a core element;

• such landlords buildings cover is important for the protection of your major investment in the property to safeguard it against the potentially crippling risks such as fire, flooding, storm damage, impacts and falling debris;

• as is the case with other forms of property cover, simple landlords insurance is likely to require an up to date and regularly reviewed evaluation of the property to ensure that the total sum insured remains sufficient for the complete reconstruction of the premises in the event of a total loss;

• it may be worth noting that not all insurers include subsidence in the list of perils covered. Some, however, include this as a standard feature of all their policies. It may be a question of choosing the right insurer, therefore, if subsidence is a risk you suspect;

Contents

• the other common core element of simple landlords insurance is typically cover for your contents of the let property. Although insurance for your tenants’ property and belongings is a matter for themselves, you may wish to safeguard the contents you, as landlord, continue to own;

• once again, regularly reviewed and up to date evaluations of your contents may help to ensure that there remains a sufficient level of cover to repair or replace items that become accidentally damaged, are lost or stolen;

Landlords

• although buildings and contents components might be standard features of many types of property cover, simple landlords insurance may typically offers added safeguards specifically designed to meet your particular needs;

• with respect to public liability, for instance, your role as landlord may expose you to the risk of claims alleging breaches of your duty of care towards them. Public liability cover under the terms of simple landlords insurance might adequately safeguard you against such claims;

• whilst a home rendered uninhabitable by one of the serious insured events might leave you with nowhere to live, if your buy to let property is destroyed you stand to lose the rental income, too. Some insurance policies for such properties therefore also include landlord rent insurance which may compensate you (up to certain limits) for such loss of rent;

• no simple landlords insurance guide is likely to include all of the features of every possible type of cover, however. More detailed investigation of the current packages available is likely to be well worth your while.