Landlord Insurance

This section provides answers to the following questions:-

Why Is Landlord Insurance Needed?
What Cover Does a Landlord Insurance Policy Provide?  

How much Landlord Insurance Cover will my Business Need?
Compare Landlord Insurance Quotes Now

Why is Landlord Insurance Needed?

Buildings insurance is an All Risks type of cover to protect the business premises against damage or destruction. Buildings insurance insures against fire, lightning, storm, and flood, impact from aircraft or vehicles, and escape of water from tanks or pipes.

What Cover Does a Landlord Insurance Policy Provide?

Landlord Insurance is designed to cover buildings that are used for business purposes, typically including shops, offices, factories, salons, warehouses, surgeries, restaurants, takeaways, fish & chip shops, and so on. In addition to these, insurance for commercial property that is used for leisure, education, or religious purposes also tends to be insured under a commercial policy wording.

Purchasers of Landlord Insurance tend to fall in to two groups.

• Owner occupiers are people that have bought a building and are going to use it for their own business.
• Landlords are people who acquire buildings and let them to commercial tenants in return for a rental income.

If you are the landlord of a commercial building, it must be made clear to the tenant where responsibility for insurance rests. You may arrange the buildings insurance and charge the tenant the premium, but they will be responsible for insuring their own contents and equipment if applicable.

Standard cover is similar to what you would find with a home insurance policy insuring against fire, lightning, explosion of gas and boilers used for domestic purposes. You may also consider insuring against 'special perils' such as explosion, riot, malicious damage, storm, flood, impact by aircraft, road and rail vehicles, escape of water from tanks or pipes, and sprinkler leakage.

An alternative is an All Risks insurance, which gives wider cover, including any accidental damage or loss not specifically excluded in a standard policy.

If your business is in rented premises, check with the building owner that their insurance covers any risks arising from your business activities.

If you work from home, most household policies can be extended to provide the cover you need, but you must discuss this with your insurance provider.

Household insurance does not normally cover any loss of office equipment, nor will it provide Public Liability Insurance. In some cases Working From Home may even invalidate your household insurance, so you may wish to check with your household insurance provider.

How much Landlord Insurance Cover Will my Business Need?

As with all property owners insurance the buildings should be insured for their full rebuilding cost and not for the market value. There are a number of optional extras available with a Landlord Insurance policy for commercial tenants that are generally available as standard on a let residential policy, the most notable of which is Subsidence cover. In addition, business polices do not normally include loss of rent insurance; If the property is let this is a must.

Liability Insurance is generally included as standard with a Landlord Insurance policy; however, cover is restricted to the buildings. If there are any contents, additional cover must be sought to cover the contents liability risk.

If you run your own business from your property, you can take out a commercial combined policy which offers range of protection for your stock, business fixtures and fittings, money, business interruption, goods in transit and liabilities. This type of cover may prove more cost effective than having a separate Landlord Insurance policy and Commercial Contents and Liability policy.

If there is no business currently operating from your property, then you will need Unoccupied Landlord Insurance. Again, this must be a specialist Unoccupied Landlord Insurance from a provider who would be happy to cover such a risk. Often this type of policy restricts the cover to the basic perils such as fire, lightning, earthquake, and explosion. In addition, there may be further requirements imposed with regards to security, utilities and inspection.

Compare Landlord Insurance Quotes Now

Landlord Insurance will be available from Coverzones soon.

Coverzones provide a quick and simple way to compare small business insurance quotes online. Simply answer a few questions about your business and the cover you want, and Coverzones will instantly show you up to 6 of the most competitively priced policies available on the market.

Coverzones does not only offer a free online quotation service. All your small business insurance needs can be managed through a complimentary MyCoverzones account. Which policy and when to buy is entirely up to you. Multiple quotes can be stored and policies purchased through Coverzones can be amended, renewed or cancelled using our service.