Landlord insurance overview

There are many different types of Landlord. From the individual who is renting out their second home to the ambitious property tycoon with an ever-increasing portfolio of trendy dockside apartments. The common theme for all landlords is the need to purchase landlords insurance to protect their investment.

Food for thought?

As a landlord, you are effectively using your property as an extra source of income – and this needs to be protected. A normal home insurance policy is not valid when you are taking an income from the property. A residential landlord policy is what is required.

With the correct landlords insurance policy in place, you can relax knowing that should any damage be caused to the property you are protected against the financial consequences. With this peace of mind in place, you can worry about running your property and nothing else.
Examples of claims which Landlord’s Insurance covers you for:

Landlord’s insurance would pay you should the following happen:

• Your property is massively damaged by a fire. Luckily your tenants are not hurt but they have to move out as the damage is so bad. It takes builders and decorators 3 months to repair the damage. Your landlord’s insurance policy would not only pay for all of the work to repair the property but also pay you the rent that you are missing out on by not having tenants living in the property during this period.
• You fall out with your tenants. They stop paying the rent and refuse to leave the property. You are forced to take them to court to get them evicted and collect rent owed to you. If you have purchased the “Legal Expenses” cover as part of your Landlord’s insurance policy then all of your costs accrued in fighting the court case would be compensated.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Buildings Sum Insured (BSI)?
You are always asked to give an estimate for the Buildings Sum Insured (BSI) when going through the process of getting a Landlord’s Insurance quotation. This is an estimate of the cost for rebuilding your property should it be completely destroyed. Do not confuse this with the value of the property (which is normally much more – especially in prime city-centre locations) otherwise you will be paying more than is necessary for your insurance. On the other hand, do not be tempted to deliberately understate the BSI since should it come to making a claim the insurers will reduce the amount that they pay you in proportion to the amount you have underestimated.

Why am I not already covered under my normal home insurance?
Home insurance policies will not pay when the property is being used to make an income (for example when you are renting your property to tenants). You must therefore buy a Landlord’s Insurance policy which is especially designed and rated for these circumstances.

I have several properties, do I need to buy one policy per property?
No, you can buy one policy which covers as many properties as you have. Using our online quotation system you can receive instant quotations from many of the UK’s top insurers for one property or multiple properties.
How do insurers calculate the premium for Landlord’s Insurance?
Different insurers use different ways of assessing the risk of your property and therefore how much to charge you.

Some of the major factors are:

• The location of the property (postcode)
• The Buildings Sum Insured
• The type of tenants in the property
• A history of claims
• The age of the property
• The type of property (flat, detached, terraced etc)

Instant Landlord Insurance Quotes

Decision Finance offers you instant online quotations for Landlord’s Insurance upon completion of a short online form. You will receive quotations from some of the UK’s top insurers including Norwich Union, Zurich and Groupama. This means that you can compare what cover you get and prices easily and quickly with absolutely no fuss.

Should you decide that you wish to proceed with one of the quotations you receive you can buy your policy online and then simply print off your policy documents. Alternatively you may wish to register your interest and ask to be called by an advisor who can talk you through the features of the each of insurers policies and answer any questions that you may have.

Buy to Let Insurance


Landlord Insurance is commonly also known as buy to let insurance. The cover available under a buy to let insurance policy is the same as a landlord insurance policy. You can get cover for your property, contents and landlords liability insurance. You will also be able to get insurance for a portfolio of properties as well as a singular property. 

Article provided by our partner, Decision Finance. If you need buy to let landlord insurance cover then Decision Finance can help, they have partnered with over 20 of the UK’s leading insurance specialists.