Landlord insurance, also commonly known, as buy to let insurance is something a landlord should begin to consider even as early as considering the purchase of a property. Failure to put in place insurance on a property could leave you with nothing to show for your money should something go wrong. In some cases it can be extremely difficult or highly expensive to put insurance in place for a property and for this reason it is important to have a structural and local survey for the property and look for appropriate insurance policies before purchasing the property. Failure to do so could result in inflated insurance premiums, which ultimately could severely impact your profitability as a landlord.

Many landlords will mistakenly be under the impression that their standard household insurance will still cover the property while they rent it out, this is often not the case. Many household policies offer no cover for buildings nor contents while the property is being let out and for this reason it is crucial to make sure you have a landlord policy or that your current household policy can offer this cover while the property is let out.

Each insurance company offers different levels of cover. Generally there are two options available for buildings cover and two options for contents cover. The first being standard cover which generally covers the building and contents for the following:

-Fire, lightning and explosion
-Riot civil commotion, strikes, locked-out workers or malicious people
-Malicious damage by tenant
-Theft or attempted theft
-Earthquake
-Impact by aircraft, road vehicles or animals, falling of trees, branches, telegraph poles, lamp-posts or pylons or falling aerials
-Escape of oil
-Storm
-Flood
-Escape of water
-Subsidence, ground heave or land slip
-Property Owners liability