Landlords Insurance – A waste of money?
There are plenty of things in life that turn out to be a waste of money.
Such as buying shares in the social networking site Friends Reunited just before Facebook rose to absolute dominance.
Or the scores of unknown footballers around the World bought for millions by English clubs and who never even graced our green and pleasant pitches.
Just a couple of examples of money going down the proverbial drain. There are plenty more.
However, in my experience landlord’s insurance isn’t one of them.
I need to qualify that last statement a little. Good landlord’s insurance is a worthwhile use of money and often very good value.
The quality of policies and what they cover vary enormously. Like many things in life the cheapest option is rarely the best and is cut price for a reason.
Insurance policies not only give you peace of mind but when they are needed can save you time, money and a lot of hassle.
There are two main types of insurance I recommend to landlords, legal and rental. Both are good investments.
Legal insurance covers you if you ever have to get solicitors involved in a dispute with a tenant. Usually these disputes involve damages or rent arrears.
I’m proud that I’ve not had a legal dispute involving one of my landlords for the past 6 years. I put this down to our ‘quality first’ tenant vetting process and constant communication with both parties.
There’s also rental protection. This does what it says on the tin and protects you if a tenant stops paying their rent.
Again I’ve seen this cover serve landlords well in the past especially if the monthly payments are going towards paying a mortgage on the property.
Home emergency repair insurance is also something worth considering. It gives the landlord cover if say for example a pipe bursts or something unexpected happens.
These policies usually offer a 24/7 service which means the issue is fixed quickly in most cases.
Don’t forget buildings and contents insurance.
Even if you don’t have a mortgage on the property you still really should have buildings’ cover.
And if you’re property is not furnished contents insurance is often still worth having as building cover does not include your carpets, curtains etc.
So when it comes to being covered it’s certainly not a waste of money.
Thanks for reading,
Mark
PS: My quality first approach has also helped me score very highly on Freeindex’s reviews of letting agents. I’m currently 10th out of 3647 listed in the UK. Here’s the page for more details.
