Landlord’s Insurance
Click Here To See How To Buy Any House, In Any Market, In 30 Days Or Less!
“It feels so unjust. You own a property, you let it to someone on the promise of a fair rent, and they don’t pay up. More often than not, you will have a mortgage to pay, and the lender expects its monthly instalments. It feels like the property owner takes all the risks. Surely my insurance broker will be able to find a way to mitigate the risk of arrears with insurance.”
This is quite a common complaint in the world of property renting. There are however, insurance policies available to ensure that if this happens to you, you will have any lost income replaced and the insurance company will make their best efforts to have the errant tenant evicted from the property.
This kind of insurance for landlords has grown in popularity as the recession has bitten. Rent arrears can come from professionals fallen on hard times, divorced couples, people claiming benefits and trades-people struggling to find enough work. I don’t think that people take on a property with the intention of getting into arrears – well not many people anyway. The problem is that the people who actually own the properties – the landlords – have a right to collect rent.
It is very rare for a landlord to own a property and not actually need the rent. The boom in “buy to let” mortgages has meant that many very normal people have become landlords. These people need their rental income to pay their mortgage and avoid the banks repossessing the property from them. That’s why they are willing to spend a proportion of their rental income on insurance.
There are two main aspects of this insurance, the first being insurance against lost income from tenants going into arrears. Then for a premium the insurance company will pay you the rent if the tenant does not. Some insurers will ask for credit checks but some will not, and some will not insure you if the tenant is claiming benefits, but some will so make sure to take care when choosing your policy.
The second aspect of some insurance policies that you should aim to have included in yours is assurance of having help evicting your tenant if they simply can’t keep payments up. Many landlords do not have the time or the skill to carry this out as efficiently as it should be done. If you are a landlord, you should talk to your insurance broker about the correct insurance policy for your needs.
If you are a property owner and you are looking for some friendly advice on property owners insurance, you should visit Coversure, one of the UK’s best providers of insurance for anything from travel to caravan insurance.
