Frequently asked questions

About Landlord Insurance

• QWhat does Rent Guarantee cover me for?

  Rent Guarantee covers unpaid rent while your tenant or ex-tenant is still in your residential property in the UK. You can make a claim once the rent has been overdue for at least one calendar month. It covers you for up to £250,000 per claim and there’s also no excess and no limit to the number of claims you can make per year.

  Once you get your property back, you may find it needs repairs for it to be let out again. The cover will pay 50% of the rent you had previously received whilst letting it out while the repairs are happening for up to three months or until the property is let, whichever happens first.

  To get this cover feature, you need to have a landlord insurance policy with us. You'll also need to take out our Legal Expenses cover to be able to add Rent Guarantee.

• QDo you cover boilers?

  If you select our Buildings cover, you’ll automatically get Equipment Breakdown cover. This pays to repair or replace your boiler, irrespective of its age, if it breaks down, but excludes wear and tear. Read more about our boiler insurance cover.

  To make a claim, you need to arrange for a boiler engineer to visit your property and assess the boiler. They need to submit their report to us, so we can assess whether the claim is covered. If it is, we’ll reimburse you for the repair/replacement costs, including parts, labour and call out charges, less the £200 excess.

  This cover is not a maintenance contract – it doesn’t cover servicing or Gas Safety Certificates (CP12).

• QWhat’s my rebuild cost and where can I find it?

  The rebuild cost is the total cost of the work needed to completely rebuild your property and put it back to the condition it was in before if it was destroyed beyond repair. It’s not the same as the market or resale value of the property.

  If you’re not sure of the rebuild cost, a calculator is available when you get a quote with us. It uses data from the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) provided by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

  The BCIS can’t provide rebuild costs for all properties – in particular it can't provide the value for a flat - so the calculator button might not appear, or you might not see any values when you click on the button.

  If the BCIS can’t provide you with a value, you can get your rebuild cost from a qualified surveyor, your mortgage adviser or letting agent, or if you’ve recently had a property survey.

• QWhat do Legal Expenses cover me for?

  Legal Expenses are optional, and cover you for legal costs incurred in connection with:

  • Legal defence
  • Eviction of squatters
  • Property damage
  • Contract disputes
  • Rent recovery

  If you wish, you can extend the cover to include legal expenses related to Repossessions.
• QDo you cover properties that have DSS tenants?

  No, we don’t currently cover properties where all of the tenants are unemployed and claiming benefits. If the tenant(s) are claiming disability benefits we might be able to offer you cover.

  We can offer cover if at least one tenant in the property, who has signed the rental agreement with you, is employed, retired, in full-time education or on disability benefits (subject to you also meeting our other acceptance criteria).

• QDo you cover HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation)?

  We don’t specifically exclude HMOs. We can accept some HMOs, for example, some student rental properties, whereas we can’t accept others, such as bedsits. Please call us on 0345 303 1763 to find out whether we could cover your property.

• QDo you insure unoccupied properties?

  Yes we do insure unoccupied properties in certain circumstances. We don’t look to provide long term cover for unoccupied properties but we understand they may be unoccupied because:

  • you've just bought the property
  • are in between tenants
  • are redecorating and/or refurbishing the property

  We’ll need to understand your specific circumstances to confirm whether we’ll be able to offer you cover. Any cover provided would be subject to the property being occupied within 60 days of unoccupancy.

  If you want to insure an unoccupied property, and you meet the two requirements below, please call us on 0345 303 1763 .

  1. The property is for rental and not personal occupation.
  2. Any improvement works undertaken are decoration only, rather than major renovation works.
• QWhat are the exclusions on this policy?

  Please refer to the policy summary document where we detail the general exclusions. For more details please refer to your policy wording or call our customer services department on 0345 303 1756.

• QWhat conditions do I have to comply with if my property is unoccupied?

  You need to inform us if your property becomes unoccupied during the term of your policy (and let us know when it becomes occupied again if you’ve previously told us that it was unoccupied).

  After your property has been unoccupied for 30 days, you need to:

  • turn off all services at the mains (except electricity if needed to maintain any fire or intruder alarm system)
  • drain the water and heating system, or between 1 October and 31 March, maintain the property at a minimum temperature of 10°C 
  • inspect your property (inside and outside) every 7 days
  • remove mail and newspapers during each inspection
  • make sure the property is secured

  After your property has been unoccupied for 30 days, we won’t cover damage caused by escape of water, riot or theft.
• QCan I buy a policy if I live outside the UK?

  Yes, you can, provided that the property you are insuring is in the UK. We don't insure property outside the UK.