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Can I use standard home insurance instead of cheap rental property insurance?

Even the cheapest landlord insurance UK includes cover that a standard home insurance doesn’t include. Standard home insurance policies tend to exclude cover if your house is occupied by tenants. This means potentially it may not pay out in this case. So finding landlord insurance is a must. Unfortunately it may cost more than a typical home insurance policy because of the extra risks it carries. However, with a bit of shopping around, it’s possible to get cheap landlord insurance quotes which also offer good levels of cover. Thankfully you don’t need to spend hours searching, because Apricot has strong relationships with lots of leading insurers, so we can do the shopping around for you!

Note that there are types of rental that require specific types of insurance (which we can also help with). If you’re offering short term lets on a platform such as AirBnB, we offer insurance for AirBnB owners. And if you’re letting out the property to multiple tenants from different households, you’ll be pleased to know we offer HMO insurance which is designed for this.

Buildings and contents cover with a cheap landlord insurance policy

Cheap buy to let insurance typically protects both the building and contents. However, the contents insurance covers the items you’ve supplied, not your tenant’s property. It’s important to protect your investment from disasters such as fire and flood, so cheap landlord building insurance is a crucial safety-net. If your rental property is furnished, you have probably invested a significant sum on kitting it out. The landlord contents insurance part of the policy protects furniture, carpets, white goods and other items you’ve placed in the property.

What else is covered by cheap landlord home insurance?

There are a variety of other covers that can be built into a policy. Cheap house insurance for landlords tends to include liability cover. If your tenant gets injured on your property, it’s possible they could make a claim against you. Although you no doubt take every precaution, accidents can happen, and claims could be incredibly expensive, and be a hazard to your business and income.

Sometimes, a policy may include alternative accommodation cover, which covers the costs of your tenants needing to stay somewhere else because of damage to the property.

Accidental damage cover can be included. There’s also the option of malicious damage cover too. The former protects you from accidental spills, breakages and damage caused by your tenants, whereas the latter protects you if they deliberately harm your property.

Rent guarantee is another popular type of cover for landlords, which can be included with cheap landlord insurance. This means if a tenant will not pay you, you are protected from loss of income. There’s also another slightly different option that can be included, called rental income protection. This pays out if your house is badly damaged and you cannot rent it out, so as to save you from loss of income.

Shopping around for cheap landlord insurance

Lots of factors affect the price of your landlord insurance. Obviously if you are insuring 11 properties it’s going to be much more expensive than insuring just the one. Frankly, your postcode makes a difference too, as insurers calculate that the likelihood of claims is much lesser in some areas compared to others. The optional elements of the cover may also increase your price a little, but it’s worth considering if these are needed before just opting for the very cheapest landlord insurance. That said, when you compare multiple leading insurers (as Apricot will help you do), there’s every chance you’ll find quality cover at a great price.

* 18% of our landlord insurance customers in 2020 had a premium of £100 or less per annum.