How Much is Landlord Insurance?

First, you’ll need to choose between building or contents insurance, or a combined landlord insurance including both buildings and landlord’s contents, before setting your specific levels of cover. The type and level of cover you opt for will have an influence on the cost of your insurance.

The size, style and even the roof of your property will also have an impact on how much you pay for your policy. No matter what kind of property you own, your insurance policy should include protection for the rebuilding costs at today’s prices and associated property owners’ liability. Remember, rebuilding costs can amount to far more than the market value of your property.

If the worst happens and your property is destroyed by a fire, you’ll need to allow for a variety of additional costs, including:

• Debris removal
• Site clearance
• Architects and surveyors’ fees
• Planning permission
• Other legal and professional fees
• The possibility that your VAT status may affect your building sum insured. i.e. do you include or exclude VAT in your rebuilding valuation?

Landlord insurance can cover you for loss of rent receivable while your property is uninhabitable, ensuring you still have money coming in until your tenants can move back in. Its important to consider the length of time it will take to fully rebuild the property and ready for full occupation once again. This period is called the maximum indemnity period, and you should take care when assessing this.

The minimum period available for loss of rent is normally 12 months, but we recommend longer periods are arranged for at least 24 months, allow for unexpected delays that often occur. Specialist or listed properties can take even longer to rebuild, so it’s important to seek guidance from your surveyor and insurance advisor.

Your landlord insurance will also be affected by the tenants you’ll be welcoming. For example, if you’re going to be renting the property to a professional couple, you may well find that your cover is cheaper than if you’re planning on letting to a group of students. 

Previous claims and the number of properties you insure will also influence the final cost of your insurance, together with any optional additional covers that you may wish to arrange e.g. home emergency cover.

Landlords insurance from Towergate

We provide landlord insurance for a wide range of properties and tenants including multi occupancy, students, local authority placements, unoccupied and much more.

See our landlord insurance page, get a landlords insurance quote online or call 0333 060 0915 for more information.

About the author

Alison Wild BCom (Hons), MAAT, MATT, Taxation Technician is a highly respected industry professional who has been working with and advising SMEs in areas including tax, pensions, insurance and marketing for over 25 years. She is a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) and also has 20 years' experience as a residential landlord.