How To Save Big on Landlord Insurance Renewals!

I reckon you might have been shafted on the rebuild costs.

£150K seems steep if this is just an average quality build 2 bed. Depends on area of course but even average London doesn't come out that high.

Try it on this rebuild calculator (it links to the BCIS without having to register);

https://www.lea-financial-services.co.uk/rebuild-calculator/

I reckon you could ring them back up and save another 30 quid- if you can be arsed.

Took your advice and had the brokers falling over themselves to give me a cheap quote ,and the quote was good ,but a water leak i pay the first £500 ,so hoping nothing goes wrong with the water works ,told the tenant to only have one shower a week and not to flush the toilet to often about once a fortnight should do ,my own water works needs a bit of attention but cant seem to find a good plumber who speaks English these days ,the only plumber i know lives in Spain ,i just knew i was paying him too much .

Each year i put my house portfolio insurance out to various insurance providers to see who is competitive in that year. I try to use a local agent if at all possible as i like to be able to pop in to talk about things as and when changes occur during the year, this is something I think is important and thus price is only one consideration. The rebuild valuation is key, i have either a rebuild valuation from surveys when buying a house or i work out sq mtrs and calcualate (and document on file) a rebuild value, always adding a sum for headroom. Do not cut under insure as this will bite you if you ever need to claim. My houses are mainly terraced or semi detached, this year my provider got a great deal on a 'flats' policy through AXA, it covers houses as well. Had quotes that work out between £100 and £225 per property from various sources. The message is clear, with a bit of groundwork, with a few calls and emails you can save money and get better cover.

Nice article, one word of warning, never under insure, they pro rata it to the payout.

Also check you are comparing apples with apples, they are very clever at structuring terms to dig themselves out of having to payout.

BTW I think you mean adament rather than amendment.

Its one of the simple rules of economics.

2 guys each earn £1000 per year.Their total living expenses are each ..£1000 per year.
One gets a £100 raise to £1100 a year.
The other pulls in the horns and saves £100 a year
Both should have an extra £100 in their pockets.
Wrong.
The guy who saves is not subject to tax etc on the extra £100 and is better off.

Is Landlords Insurance still necessary for a flat in a block that already has Buildings Insurance?

Thanks

Jace - this is my opinion on your question. Your service charge on the block of flats is part paying for insurance and the freeholder should give you a copy of the cover, to this ends the bricks and mortar are covered. What you may wish to consider is the contents of the flat that you own as these will not be covered by buildings insurance. The other consideration should be liability cover for things like a tradesman having an accident in your flat and claiming against you. Where I have had a flat in the past I tend to put a small amount of contents cover of say £10k that includes public liability cover, the cost is minimal but gave me peace of mind. Every situation is different and you should consider yours on its own merits.

Take care with flats. I had one where the freeholder vanished . Nobody collected a charge of any sort so it wasn't insured. Make sure that you actually see the policy.
Although mine were in a block of 4 I insured mine separately as that gave me a degree of security.

My suggestion is - try cashback sites as well. At the moment going through quidco.com could earn you around £90-95 commission per policy if you go for Direct Line or More Than - which were one of the cheapest policies anyway.

Choosing the right insurance policy for your property is a tough job as there are hundreds of policies available in the market. Before signing a policy, it is better to note down your requirement and then see which policy is covering your requirements to the maximum. I will suggest taking the services of Pick Fords to buy the land insurance policy.

Hi. Just purchased and let a 2 bed terraced house in West Yorkshire.
1st timer.. Would anyone recommend loss of rent insurance should the tenant fail to pay.

Hi I just wanted to say a big thanks. I am about to become a first time landord and signed up for your latest landlord tips a few months ago. I saved your April tips on insurance and have just completed the form this morning. In 1 minute of my pressing the send button Emily an extremely professional lady rang me from Peacock Insurance of Coventry. She found me a quote of £126, yet the cheapest quote I had managed to find on line was £216. So thanks for saving me a hefty £90. Filling in the form, receiving the call and paying over my dues took as you rightly say no more than 20 minutes. Cheers

Hi your email came just at the right time for me. My building insurance was due on my buy-to-let property. I had my renewal through at £314. I completed the form and within seconds got a phone call from a number of insurance companies. The best quote I got was £197.97 like for like.
That's a saving of 116.03 :-)

Thanks a lot Landlord for shaking me up from my cosy butterfly and sunshine world and making me think (and act!). Used your form to get some quotes for Landlord Insurance and saved myself £300! Think I was being totally ripped off before and my laziness has cost me hundreds over the years! I have learnt my lesson. Quotes will be requested every year now - I won't get caught again.

I am in the process of buying my share of freehold for my flat (which is in a terraced house comprising a total of 2 flats)and with my neighbour will need to decide for a Building Insurance cover for both flats. On top of that, though, I will need Landlord's Insurance, as I will be letting my flat. How does this work? Can we get a Building Insurance for both flats and a separate Landlord's just for me? Would I be paying for Building insurance twice though? Kind of confused!! Thanks

Ever since Motor Insurance marketing changed (about 10 years ago?), I have become paranoid about the whole business. I invariably renewed with the same company because I thought being a loyal customer was appreciated (it is - sucker!) So many changes were happening then, companies abandoning motor insurance altogether or being taken over by other vultures.
When one renewal notice came through at well over twice the premium (oh, and told not to worry since they will renew automatically, and "you won't be uninsured"), I started to search online and of course came up with much cheaper quotes.
I applied this process to Breakdown Cover, then with Buildings Insurance (both home and my lettings). Unfortunately, only motor insurance seems to be catered for by the likes of "Compare the Merecat" etc, so this form will be a godsend.
A word of warning though: Even the comparison sites are not without skullduggery,
hence my mention of paranoia. I've found that proper timing is vital. If they twig that you are over a barrel - the price goes up, rather like Holidays do during school vacations. So plan well ahead if you can. Naturally, they are aware of that dodge too, so they have time limits before the quote expires. Forget, and try again nearer the time, and they will remember your previous searches, thus realising you are at their mercy!

@Brian

People talk about Rip Off Britain, I call it Mugs Britain.

Do you remember when we joined the EU we were told that it would bring greater competition and lower prices?

What actually happened is our insurance companies were acquired by EU companies who could not believe what UK customers put up with.

A friend of mine has been on a long term contract in Germany for nearly 10 years, his insurance has not increased in all that time, in fact it has got lower. A few years ago he was hit by another car whilst visiting family in the UK. He made no claim because his car would be beyond economic repair for an insurance company. The other driver did the same (they were at fault).

His premium did not increase, a year later the UK driver started one of these fake medical claims, a scratch on his finger became "tissue damage". The insurance company settled even though it was a fake claim, simply because it was cheaper to settle.

Despite this the German insurance company still did NOT increase the premium.

In the UK, a tree can fall on your car in a street where you will never visit again but your premium will be increased.

Even if you make no claim they increase your premium in the UK.

In Germany you have to be at fault and you have to make a claim for them to increase the premium.

In addition this we have the ABI, data sharing and insurance companies excluding this that and the other. All of these work against customers.

It is high time this disgusting industry was highly regulated.

On this blog we often talk about the deregulation act of 2015 because of the changes affecting landlord. Yet there was also a change in insurance policies. Previously an insurance company had to give you 28 days notice before dropping cover on a car policy, the dereg act allows them to terminate at midnight on the day they tell you and they can tell you via email!!

As far as I am concerned insurance should have no exclusions (especially for medical), i.e. we all share the risk and before they start saying it will be prohibitively expensive, that is nonsense, exclusions were only created to find ways to make more profit.

END OF RANT

Excellent "rant" David! I couldn't have explained all that better myself! Especially the bit: "What actually happened is our insurance companies were acquired by EU companies who could not believe what UK customers put up with."
I concur with everything you said in your post, although there will be many who will say we are simply paranoid.
The question is, what can be done about it?
I'm just 80 years old now, so have (realistically) only another 10 years of car ownership ahead of me, and will probably give it up before then, but I feel sorry for my adult children and grandchildren who actually think the EU is a good thing!

The solution is REGULATION, whether it be banks or any other business, if you are soft they abuse the market.

As long as there is the ABI coordinating cartel like behaviour there will never be competition.

I heard on you and yours how if you shop around on price comparison websites they put your price UP!

When the ABI was queried about this they said "it is too complicated for you to understand".

By simply removing exclusions and the 80 page terms and conditions for all insurance we will have a truly competitive market because they will all be insuring the same risk.

That, dismantling the ABI and maybe breaking up the biggest companies.

All loss adjusters should also be banned then taken out at dawn and shot!

I have noticed how the insurance companies are encouraging their legal customers to say nothing, refuse to provide evidence unless compelled by a court and playing BLAME THE VICTIM.

Would have loved the form to have provision to state when existing insurance is due for renewal, as I don't want to cancel mine I just want a competitive quote ready for when mine runs out.

What happened was, minutes after I filled the form in the phone started ringing starting from 8.45 in the morning (while getting the kids ready to leave for school)almost like it was a national emergency that I get a quote right then and there!of course they all had several questions to ask, and being morning rush time had to ask them all to call later or email me.I appreciated the enthusiasm though!
I though would have personally preferred to give more details on the form and they email me quotes for me to read in my own time and compare quote for quote.

Every year when my insurance renewal rolls around I know I should do my ' homework' but never get round to do it..now was my chance to do it at liesure !

For instance,the form asked how many bedrooms the property has, whereas mine is a Victorian conversion with 5 flats in the building..it got tedious explaining that to each caller..

Just my opinion, being that I'm a busy landlord and Mum of young kids, never enough time in the day...

Otherwise great article as usual and def got me to start the ball rolling come renewal time..

Tried to "Find a quote"
Find address doesn't find and no alternative
Get Quote button does nothing.
You couldn't make it up.

Hi, thank you for your email.
At the moment I am paying £346 for a three bed semi which includes rent cover. I miss read the policy last year and when it read "rent" it just meant "rent recovery" .

It is best to shop around - I did but was only saving around £50 ..so I stuck with the same insurer.

Propertyinvestment web site is brilliant!

Thank you ..

It's not just the price that you have to consider.
A couple of years ago one of my properties had "the dreaded fire" caused by our tenants fridge freezer going up in flames. The house was badly damaged.
Five months later, and work hadn't even started on getting the house started. The insurance company just said to contact Direct Group that were dealing with the claim, and they never seemed to know what was happening and even claimed the case was closed on one occasion. They obviously earned their one star rating on Trustpilot. Eventually things started to get better when they instructed a local contractor to do the work, but then work stoppped as the contractor hadn't been paid the agreed stage payments. A year after the fire, the property was finished and our tenants moved back in. Now (rather like car insurance), premiums on ALL my properties have shot up, as I had made a claim on a house buildings insurance policy in the last 5 years.

I saved £80 with better cover & less excess too. Thanks

Hi haven’t tried yet as I had a nightmare to find a company to insure my premises.
It’s one building, split into 2, with separate addresses for council tax etc. Hardly anyone would insure as the current property is currently an empty shop ( waiting to be converted).
Any suggestions of companies would be gratefully received. Thanks

I actually filled the form out and received.... nothing. Radio silence.

Not sure what's happened....

Greetings, just managed to save £60 on my Landlord’s insurance renewal following your advice.
My existing insurer’s had increased my premium by almost 15%, not willing to just roll over and swallow it I filled out the quote zone form, got contacted by Marlon from Orwell Insurance Services
and he quoted a price that I was happy to pay, broker was efficient and helpful.