It’s the call every landlord dreads – the boiler has broken down and your tenants have no heating or hot water.

Boiler repairs aren’t cheap, with heating engineers charging as much as £60 an hour as well as high call-out charges. If the boiler has to be replaced you’ll be lucky to find one for less than £500 and with installation, costs can run into the thousands of pounds.

If you choose our Buildings Insurance, we will automatically give you Boiler Breakdown cover as standard. It'll cover the cost of repairing or even replacing a boiler, so you don’t need to worry about unexpected bills.

As long as the fault isn’t due to normal wear and tear, you’ll be covered for all of the costs involved in repairing or replacing the boiler (up to your buildings sum insured). We’ll pay for labour and call out charges, as well as parts – minus a £200 excess.

We don’t offer a call out service and our cover is set up to pay for the costs involved in repairing or replacing your boiler. Find out how to claim.

Check out this video to find out more about our Boiler Cover.

Please note Boiler Breakdown is part of our Equipment Breakdown cover that comes with our Buildings Insurance.

If it's not due to wear and tear, we'll cover your boiler for breakdowns caused by:

• expansion vessel failure
• the heat exchanger cracking or rupturing
• valves failing
• a circuit board fault

The insurance will also cover:

1. The cost of supplying tenants with portable heaters until the boiler has been fixed.
2. The cost of providing your tenants with alternative accommodation until the boiler is replaced or working again – if we believe that the property can't be lived in. For example, during particularly cold winter months having no heating or hot water may mean that tenants need to be rehoused.

If your boiler breaks down you need to call out a Gas Safe registered heating engineer to look at the issue.

You'll need to send us a report from a Gas Safe registered heating engineer detailing how and why the boiler has broken down. We'll also need a quotation or invoice for the repair or replacement of the boiler and a copy of the most up-to-date gas safety certificate.

Once we have this, we’ll assess whether the breakdown is covered. If it is, we’ll reimburse you for all costs you have incurred in getting the boiler fixed or replaced, minus your £200 excess.

We can also deal with claims retrospectively as long as you have the engineer's report on the boiler problem.

Find out more about our Landlord Insurance