For landlords who just need to insure the building.
New customers only. Qualifying criteria apply. Terms and conditions apply.
We offer both buildings and contents insurance for landlords and buy-to-let owners. In fact, more than 250,000 customers have taken out our Landlord Insurance.
But if, for example, you're renting out an unfurnished property without contents or free-standing white goods, you may be interested in landlord building insurance only.
Our Landlord Buildings policy covers:
The policy also includes public liability, so if you're sued for damage to someone else's property, or injury to your tenants, you're covered. For example, if a burst pipe in your property causes a flood in your neighbour's property, or if your tenants trips over an uneven patio stone, you'll be insured for the legal costs. It also covers any compensation awarded.
As an optional benefit you can also insure your building against subsidence, so you're covered for damage to your property due to landslip or movement of the ground beneath the building's foundations.
Landlord Buildings Insurance from Direct Line for Business gives you the choice to increase limits and extend your cover for an additional premium. Remember that home insurance isn’t designed for rental properties – you need landlords buildings insurance.
Our specialist claims handlers have helped thousands of landlords get their rental properties back in order, so they and their tenants can get on with their lives. If you make a claim, we’ll give you a dedicated claims handler to look after your claim from start to finish, so it'll get sorted with as little fuss as possible.
Plus, our flexible cover also allows you to add properties to an existing policy at any time, giving you one simple renewal date. We also won't charge you any mid-term adjustment (MTA) fees for changing your policy, such as adding a property to it.
You can obtain Terrorism cover if you are a private individual but the eligibility criteria is different to that of a business whether that is a Ltd company, Sole Trader or partnership.
Terrorism cover is not designed to pick up Household risks where the property is solely occupied as your private residence and is restricted to contracts of general insurance not usually insured in the name of an individual.
The clearest indicator is that you are a sole trader (and not an individual) or business partnership is that you are registered with HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) and that you declare the income generated from the business.
If the rented property is solely commercial use then the policy can be arranged in an individual's name.
If the property is of mixed use (commercial and residential) or solely residential and is insured in an individual's name it may be eligible if it meets the specific criteria.
A Private Individual can be eligible for cover if the commercially occupied or commercially used proportion of the property exceeds 20%. Whilst this would generally be decided by the square footage of the property, for risks like Holiday Homes, it could qualify if it is let or available to be let on a commercial basis to the public for at least 20% of the time i.e. more than 73 days in any annual period.
So unless you are recognised as a sole trader, it is important to know whether it was an active decision to become a landlord and receive an income or whether you may have become an accidental landlord (as per the examples below).
This same approach will apply to determine whether two or more individuals setting up a partnership are doing so for the purpose of a business and so are eligible for Terrorism cover or not.
