Does landlord insurance cover tenant damage?

Even the best of tenants can cause damage to your property, but what happens if something goes wrong?

It’s important to check your insurance cover to make sure that, if an accident does happen, you have peace of mind knowing you’re covered for the unexpected.

Here at Property118, we’ve teamed up with The Home Insurer which helps provide a top-class service to ensure you get the right policy and could help save you money.

Malicious and Accidental Damage

If a tenant deliberately damages your property, then you normally have limited cover under the malicious damage peril. In most cases, this is restricted to a maximum of £5k or £10k cover.

Cannabis farms are malicious damage and normally will cost lots more than the £5k or £10k limit to repair the property. In many cheaper policies, they are excluded as a peril completely.

Tenants setting up cannabis farms is more common than people realise, with data from the Met Police revealing more than 1,000 farms across London in the last six years.

Tenants causing malicious damage to a property can happen to anyone, with an experienced landlord explaining how a tenant set up a marijuana farm in his property, costing him more than £10,000 in damages.

There is no better protection than vetting tenants and regular visits to ensure you don’t fall victim to these issues.

If a tenant accidentally spills wine on the carpet or breaks a window whilst gardening then it’s best to add on accidental damage insurance. This can help landlords cover the cost of replacing or repairing part of the rental property.

Things like overflowing bathtubs are normally picked up on landlord insurance as standard perils – in this case, covered by the escape of water peril. Check this peril for any limits, though, £20k is standard on many cheaper policies, or less. Escape of water claims can cost much more than this.

Jason McClean, director of The Home Insurer, gives landlords some tips on how to spot a malicious tenant and urges landlords to conduct property inspections to check for anything suspicious.

He said: “It’s hard to tell if a tenant is going to be malicious, however, and a good letting agent will be your first line of defence. Clean credit checks, good references and gut feeling from the agents will help you.”

He added: “After that, you need to ensure agents are visiting at regular intervals – normally this is three or six months – or as required by your insurance policy.

“Short terms between visits will limit any possible damage building up and reduce any claims costs; vital when payouts are normally limited to £5,000 or £10,000.”

Contents cover insurance

The Home Insurer can help landlords find the best coverage for landlords when it comes to tenant damage and all for the best price.

Any personal belongings from the landlord in the property can be covered by landlord contents insurance.

This protects appliances and furnishings in your rental property including washing machines, dishwashers and even carpet.

Having contents cover gives you peace of mind as replacing electronic and furnishings can be expensive.

It’s important to remember that damage caused by general wear and tear is not covered by landlord insurance and tenants will need their own insurance to cover their own personal belongings.

Landlord insurance for the best price

The Home Insurer is here to help landlords with insurance and always tries to be honest with clients and manage expectations.

Jason says many Property118 customers will have received lower prices on their insurance policy this year.

He said: “I could sit and promise you the world and if you don’t get it you are going to be disappointed.

“That’s not the way we operate – we prefer to be honest with our clients. We have three things we tell our clients. Firstly, we tell them this is what you’ve paid for, secondly, this is what you are likely to get and finally are you sure you want to buy the policy, it’s as simple as that.

“What I say to clients is we check your policies every year so it’s not automatically we increase the price every time.

“I know a lot of our policy owners this year will have received lower prices compared to last year as we shop around all our markets, and we want to try and give the best policy and price every year.”

The most efficient way to get a personal quote with the best price and cover possible is to call the team on 01832 770965 so we can focus on your enquiry when you are ready and sitting down with your portfolio details to hand.

Alternatively, you can use the form below to request one of our team to give you a call back.