Commercial Landlords, Don't Get Overwhelmed By Insurance Policies, All The Insurance Advice You Need

Insurance is often looked upon as a distressed purchase, a bit like a replacement exhaust. You do not want to spend money on it but you have to. So ensuring you have the right insurance and you are paying the right price, is going to go some way to making you feel better about the whole insurance market. The way I look at insurance is that it allows me to sleep better at night, knowing I am fully protected. And what price is a good night's sleep? So as commercial landlords having the right insurance to ensure your flats, houses, offices and shops are correctly covered is paramount!

No matter if you are a residential or commercial landlord, you are responsible for people living or working on your premises so 'standard' insurance policies just will not cut it, you will have to the correct commercial insurance policies to be fully and legally covered.

Seeming as everyone on Britain is vying to be a buy to let landlord, we will start with residential property. Buy to let Insurance as it is commonly known essentially covers all the usual occurrences plus anything that could be put down to a tenant's lapse, such as leaving the oven or gas on and the building caught fire because of it. Under these circumstance, you as the landlord would be covered under buy to let insurance.

Most insurers for commercial property will offer accidental damage so that if part of the building itself is damaged, it can be dealt with easily rather than trying to wait for the tenants to pay up.

Buildings insurance is extremely important as the property, in terms of bricks and mortar, are the security for the mortgage and so the building needs to be covered to ensure that it can be rebuilt or renovated if need be.

Of course turning up at a building you own and finding it smouldering away is going to present you with a unique set of circumstances. If you are insured then OK, the asset will be rebuilt in some way however there are policies that can cover consequential losses such as loss of rental income. A mishap at a property may cause it to be inhabitable by tenants for a period of time; the loss to you in terms of effort to put right will be significant so the last thing you want on top of that is the loss of rent. Some polices will also offer alternative accommodation arrangements, I suppose similar to the courtesy car element of your car insurance.

Liability insurance is another thing to consider if you are a commercial landlord, because if there is an accident on your property you could be liable and so this ensures that you have cover to pay legal expenses if the worst should happen.

The extra insurance policies for commercial property do not stop their either, some lenders covering commercial property would like to see 'property insurance' added to the roster of policies covering your property as a back up to building insurance. Lenders sill insist on this for the same reason they insist on building insurance, to cover any potential default on the remortgage so the property can be resold on the market at the same time.

Contents insurance is not a requirement, but strongly advised if your goal is to rent furbished accommodation or property on the market. Contents insurance will cover, damage, theft etc to all furniture and appliances within the property.

There are plant of insurance companies out there and many f them offer landlords insurance. Shopping around is the key plus it is worth joining one of the many landlord networking groups where you ask questions and share experiences. I do not like paying for insurance, but I do not like being uninsured more.