The answer to the question, what does landlord insurance cover, may appear to be deceptively easy.

Some people may answer the question by simply saying:

• buildings, fixtures and fittings cover;

• contents insurance;

• third party public liability cover.

That may be broadly correct, however, the position may become a little more complicated if you consider wider areas of protection when thinking about what does landlord insurance cover.

Some landlords buildings and contents insurance may offer cover for what may be considered to be business risk areas, sometimes including things such as:

• a loss of rental income in the event that you are unable to rent out your property while trying to recover from a problem caused by an insured risk (this may typically not include situations where you had lost rental income due to absconding tenants or where you are engaged in a legal battle with them over eviction etc);

• malicious damage caused by tenants;

• trace and access cover – where a tradesperson has found it necessary to damage areas of your property while they were endeavouring to find the source of a problem.

It is typically advisable to be clear in your own mind, as to what cover a let property insurance quotation and its associated policy will provide to you, if you decide to purchase it.

Some landlords may be inclined to simply select the lowest cost landlord insurance they can find but this runs the risk of starting to have debates about what is or is not covered, only in the context of a future claim.

You may find it far preferable to have this discussion with potential insurers before you have purchased the policy rather than at the time you are trying to make a claim.

Although it may appear a rather gloomy way of thinking about it, in the final analysis, your landlords insurance may be all that stands between you and potential financial ruin, should misfortune strike.

It therefore seems to be intuitively logical to take the question of the selection of your insurance seriously and to make sure that you have obtained a thorough answer to the question, what does landlord insurance cover, prior to signing any policy purchase agreements.