If you rent out a property to tenants, the short answer is yes – it’s highly likely that you do need landlords insurance.
If you’re using a property in this way, a standard home insurance policy will not offer you appropriate or sufficient protection.
Landlords insurance offers you specialist cover that’s designed to protect you financially for a range of eventualities.
As with home insurance, there are two types of landlords insurance: buildings and contents. Landlords buildings insurance helps to protect the actual bricks and mortar of your rental property from things like fire and flooding.
If you have furnished the property, you may also want to consider contents insurance. This could help cover any items of furniture or furnishings that you have supplied in the rental property. Your tenants would need their own policy for their own personal items.
In addition, a landlords insurance policy can provide a number of other cover options. Most policies will include landlord liability insurance. This type of cover can help protect you against compensation claims if someone was injured as a result of your property.
For example, if someone was injured due to a faulty electrical fitting, you could be held responsible and face large financial outlays. You might also need help in covering any legal expenses that might arise.
Landlords insurance can also provide rent guarantee cover. This could help you cope with the problems arising from lost rental payments. This could be due to issues with your tenants’ payments or if your property became uninhabitable for some reason.