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Landlord Boiler Breakdown Cover Explained

Landlord boiler breakdown insurance covers you for emergency repairs to the primary heating system of your rental property. It means you can get the boiler fixed fast without fuss - and hopefully keep your tenants warm and happy. This guide explains the key features of landlord boiler breakdown cover and what you should look for in a policy.

What's in this guide?

  1. What is landlord boiler breakdown cover?
  2. Do I need landlord boiler breakdown cover?
  3. Features of landlord boiler breakdown cover
  4. Limitations of landlord boiler breakdown cover
  5. Can you buy landlord boiler breakdown insurance by itself?
  6. Does Towergate offer landlord boiler or home emergency insurance?

What is landlord boiler breakdown cover?

Landlord boiler breakdown cover is insurance for emergency repairs to the boiler and heating system at your rental property. It means that if the boiler breaks down, you ring your insurance company, and get an approved engineer out as soon as possible to get it fixed. This means that you won’t find yourself trying to source a plumber at 3am on a Sunday, in January, when your tenants have called up in a panic!

Do I need landlord boiler breakdown cover?

No, landlords don’t need to have boiler breakdown cover - but it could be useful if: you don’t have your own local networks of tradespeople; if you live too far from your rental property to assess and deal with damage yourself; or if your margins are tight and emergency repair costs could seriously cause you serious financial damage.

Features of landlord boiler breakdown cover

You’ll usually get emergency repairs done to your heating system, up to a certain limit, for the cover period – which is usually a year. You should also get access to a 24-hour helpline, and a network of pre-approved emergency tradespeople. If your boiler can’t be fixed or would cost more than a new boiler would, your policy will often include a set contribution towards a new one.

Limitations of landlord boiler breakdown cover

Insurers probably won’t insure your boiler if it’s very old, or hasn’t been regularly serviced, so be sure to check the small print to find out these limits.

Also, watch out for what’s classed as an ‘emergency’. Often, the problem will only be considered an emergency if it is going to cause significant damage to your property, or discomfort to your tenants.

Therefore, a broken boiler on a very warm summer day may not be considered an ‘emergency’. Or, if you’ve got a home emergency policy that covers security, this policy will only cover securing the property after damage – not a full repair. This mean that you may get a broken window boarded up, but to replace it you’ll need to make another claim under your general landlords’ insurance policy.

Can you buy landlord boiler breakdown insurance by itself?

Landlord boiler breakdown usually come as an optional extra on top of a basic landlords insurance policy.

Does Towergate offer landlord boiler or home emergency insurance?

At Towergate, we don’t currently offer our own landlord boiler breakdown insurance but our partner company, Simple Landlords Insurance, does. They offer boiler cover as an add-on to a landlords' insurance policy. What’s more, as a Towergate customer you’ll get a 10% discount for your Simple policy – use the discount code TWGT10 when it asks you for one.

Towergate and Simple Landlords Insurance are both part of The Ardonagh Group, the UK’s largest independent insurance broker with global reach. We are a network of over 100 office locations and workforce of nearly 7,000 people

 

This is a marketing article by Towergate Insurance.