What Insurance Do Landlords Need For A Furnished Property?

First and foremost, just to clarify, landlord insurance isn’t a legal requirement (I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve uttered those words on my blog) – neither building or contents (e.g. furniture) – so it’s not a matter of “need”, but rather a matter of being sane Vs insane. In other words, you’d be as mad as a box of frogs not to have suitable insurance in place if your rental property is furnished by yourself (and not the tenant).

Needless to say, landlord building insurance is a must for every landlord. It’s not even up for debate. Beyond that, I’m from the school of thought that believes all landlords that provide furnished rental properties (whether it be partial or fully furnished) should also invest in insurance that covers the items they provide. The reality is, most tenants are unlikely to care for the contents of your property as well as you’d hope, so it only makes sense to do so. And, that’s not me shitting on tenants exclusively, that’s me taking a steaming dump on humans in general – we’re more inclined to take care of our own possessions than other peoples.

“Contents insurance” is what you need!

Landlord contents insurance is an insurance cover that pays out for the cost of repairing or replacing items belonging to a landlord that are stored in a property occupied by tenants. It will typically cover the following (but it can vary by provider and how much coverage you require):

• Furniture
• Electronics
• White goods & appliances

So if you have a furnished rental property, that’s the stuff you’ll want. Landlord contents insurance!

Needless to say, it’s important to read and fully understand how and when you can make a claim. Normally, you’re covered if the items are stolen or damaged, but terms and conditions will apply!

How to purchase insurance for Furnished Rental Properties

You have two options:

1. Purchase building + contents insurance together – this is the most common way forward, as most insurance providers that offer building insurance will also offer contents coverage as an optional add-on. Buying both together from the same provider is not only the most convenient option, but it’s also usually the most cost-effective.

   If you only have building insurance but would like to upgrade your policy to include contents insurance, you should be able to contact your existing provider to expand your coverage.

2. Purchase contents insurance as a separate policy – it is possible to purchase contents insurance as a separate policy from a different provider to your building insurance. That usually makes most sense in the following circumstances:
   • If you’re trying to upgrade your building insurance provider to include contents insurance, but their upgrade fee is not competitive.
   • If your existing building insurance doesn’t insure contents. From my experience, this is very unusual, but I guess it’s possible.
   • Lastly, if you’re after some kind of specialist coverage e.g. not all providers cover contents stored in summer houses/outbuildings.

If you’re interested in getting a competitive quote for either building insurance or both building and contents insurance, I can only recommended my affiliate partner of several years, QuoteSearcher. I personally use them and they’ve yet to let me down.

I most recently saved 50% by using QuoteSearcher when I renewed my insurance policy.

All you need to do is fill in a simple form, and then a specialist broker will contact you to run through your requirements and your available options. There is no obligation and receiving the quotes is 100% free.

Please note, I try my best to keep the information of each service up-to-date, but you should read the T&C's from their website for the most up-to-date and accurate information.

Do you need to insure your tenants furniture/possessions?

You can, but it’s very unusual.

If you’re providing an unfurnished property, it’s usually up to your tenant to get their own insurance if they wish to insure their contents e.g. furniture, personal possessions etc. In wish case, they’ll need renters contents insurance.

However, if you technically provide an unfurnished property but provide a lot of white goods (e.g. dishwasher, fridge, freezer, washing machine etc), which is actually quite a common scenario, you might be interested in white goods & appliance insurance (honestly, the wide range of landlord insurance available these days is ridiculous).