I know myself insuring property isn’t the thing that excites me the most. What I do care about though is when something goes wrong I can pick up the phone to for help. In addition, I want to work with a company who understands the insurance risk I face as a property owner.
Over the years I have owned lots of different properties from houses to flats, conversions, period to relatively new.
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XXX | Each time I have learned that not all insurance companies are the same. Some specialise in certain types of property such as insuring Grade 2 listed properties or ones with a thatched roof. Properties next to water or in flood zones will be insured by some companies and not others. |
One thing I learned recently when my mum was in hospital, is although we originally got a good deal on her insurance, we had chosen a company who would never insure a property which was empty for more than 30 days.
As mum was in hospital for a month, then stayed with us, it meant on top of all the stress and worry and hospital visits we had to re-insure mum at higher expense with an insurance company who would cover her property during this time.
So it is worth checking you are using the right insurance company for your specific property and location.
| In addition, many people don’t appreciate you need to maintain your property to a certain standard if you want to make a claim on your insurance in the future. If you have problems with your roof and it turns out it’s down to lose tiles you didn’t fix or flashing which has failed, then quite rightly they may not pay out. | XXX |  |
So don’t just check your policy at the start of the insurance and then file it away. Make sure you keep a list of things you need to check during the year to make sure your insurance remains valid.
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Whether it is your own home or you have bought a property specifically to buy to let you MUST get specialist landlord insurance.
Although many insurance companies offer landlord insurance, the cover they give varies tremendously – and so does the price. So cheapest insurance for landlords isn’t always the best!
Things which require you to need specialist insurance include:-
1. Time your property might be empty for
(most policies don’t cover more than 30 days)
2. Accidental and malicious damage caused by tenants and their visitors
3. Public liability insurance to cover you if a tenant or tradesman has an accident in your property
4. Loss of rent should your tenant leave without paying
5. Evicting your tenant should they break the rules
So, make sure you are covered for things like the above and even ‘cannibis factories’ which are quite popular in the criminal world to set up in naïve investor’s buy to lets!
For help with insuring your buy to let property, sign up for our FREE Buy to
Let Insurance Checklist from Direct Line. And for more information about buy to let, visit their Landlord Knowledge Centre.
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