How to make savings on simple landlord insurance

Simple landlord insurance is an insurance policy specifically designed to deal with the specific risks associated with rental properties. Typically, this type of insurance policy will cover either the bricks and mortar and any contents that are owned by the landlord, or the bricks and mortar only. Simple landlord insurance can be set up to cover either one single rental property or on a portfolio basis to provide protection to multiple properties.

If you are an existing landlord or a potential landlord, there’s no doubt that the cost of simple landlord insurance will be on your radar. There are several ways of reducing the cost of your landlord insurance. Here are just some of them:

1. Decide exactly how much cover you need. As already mentioned, simple landlord insurance can be purchased to cover both the building itself and any contents you own. In establishing the amount of cover you need, you must firstly ascertain the rebuild cost of your property. Your surveyor will normally provide this information at the time purchase. When it comes to contents, only you can decide whether or not the cost of insuring the contents you own in the property makes financial sense. For example, if you have minimal contents and they give rise to a high premium, you may decide that the risk of leaving the contents uninsured makes better financial sense.

2. Consider the excess you’re prepared to carry. Like all insurance policies, the higher the excess you’re prepared to carry as the landlord, the lower the resulting premium will be.

3. Shop around. Simple landlord insurance prices vary dramatically from company to company. So, once you have established your precise list of needs, you should obtain a broad range of like-for-like quotes that you can compare. There are several online comparison portals that may be useful in this task as well as online single companies and asking insurance agents on a face-to-face basis.

4. Seek out low-risk tenants. Simple landlord insurance is like any other insurance policy, ie. the premiums are based on the perceived risk of payout. Professional tenants are perceived by insurance companies to be lower risk than students. As a result, if your property can be marketed towards professional tenants, you will be able to secure yourself a more attractive insurance premium.