My Landlords Insurance is up for renewal again

My Landlords Insurance is up for renewal again

17:24 PM, 15th August 2012, About 12 years ago 8

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As I sifted through the post this morning I thought to myself ‘how time flies‘ – my landlords insurance is up for renewal again.

Landlords Insurance RenewalIt’s nowhere near as painful as it used to be though. Several years ago it dawned on me that for some reason a very high percentage of landlords insurance policies are renewed on 1st September. I’m not really sure why so many come up for renewal on that date but it got me thinking. What if I could round up a few friends who also have a lot of property and try to negotiate a better deal with a broker based on them having an opportunity to quote for all of our business?

That’s exactly what I did and the first broker to take us up was Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers. They served us well for many years but eventually we had a bust up with them and have moved on several times since to whichever broker is prepared to offer us the best deal at the time. We definitely get a better deal by presenting brokers with opportunites to quote for large amounts of business, that’s for sure! 🙂

I’m not an insurance broker, I never have been, but I do know enough about insurance to know a good deal when I see one. Word spread of our group and before long other landlords realised that negotiating on mass could result in significant savings. Our group now comprises of several hundred landlords. Not all of them stick with the group as some of them still manage to find find better deals elsewhere, usually because they operate in a property niche or a location which the groups chosen insurer for the year doesn’t really want to do business in. Nevertheless, a lot of us save a lot of money.

We thought about charging a membership fee to join the group at one point but that would have got very complicated, especially for members who ended up getting a better deal elsewhere and we certainly didn’t want to deal with complaints. In the end though we settled on a dealing with brokers who offered us a fair share of their commission from the insurers and everybody seemed to be happy with that. The bottom line was that if they could get a better deal elsewhere they were perfectly free to do so.

Obviously price is important but there are other considerations too. Members of the group are advised but not compelled to include the following in their landlords insurance renewal quotes:-

  1. Landlords liability insurance
  2. Cover for malicious damage caused by tenants
  3. At least ÂŁ5,000 of contents cover per property
  4. Loss of rent cover in the event of having to re-home tenants due to works undertaken which are covered though insurance

If you would like to see whether you can save money or get better cover for the same or a lower premium it is completely free to join our group. Simply fax your name, address and telephone number together with your last insurance schedule and your renewal notice to 01603 428545. We will then get the groups selected brokers for the year to call you. Alternatively, you can scan and email the information to info@property118.com

We can’t guarantee you will get a better deal but it can’t hurt to see can it?


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Recardo

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7:55 AM, 16th August 2012, About 12 years ago

Hi Mark It is a pain shopping about for decent insurance every year, you would expect the present company would offer a decent premium on renewal based on the fact that no claim has been made, or several policies are held with that company. It now seems they want higher excesses, one Co wanted ÂŁ1000 for escape of water, anothers quoted between ÂŁ100-ÂŁ350.
A lot only cover Malicious damage by Tenant or their Guest for ÂŁ5000. If you told a bad tenant they had to leave they could quite easily do more than ÂŁ5000 worth of damage so why do the put the cover so low? I'm sure a lot of smaller landlords like myself with 5 properties would be had pressed to find ÂŁ10,000 if the damage was ÂŁ15.000.

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15:08 PM, 16th August 2012, About 12 years ago

It's a real shame I didn't come across this group earlier. I received my landlord insurance renewal last week and after a lot of research online and talking to colleagues, I decided to use MODERATED
I have only got a single property, that is a buy-to-let investment and have had no problems with any of my tenants so far, but I wanted to be sure that I was fully covered in all eventualities 🙂
MODERATED Insurance gave me a really good deal and their cover seemed pretty impressive for the money. I don't know what other members of the group think, but for ÂŁ148 (on a rebuild value of ÂŁ100,000), I got the following cover:

ÂŁ5,000,000
worth of Property Owners Liability

ÂŁ10,000,000 worth of Employers Liability

Loss of Rent cover up to 30% of the buildings sum insured

Full Cover between Tenancies for up to 90 days

Malicious Damage by the tenants and/or their guests

MODERATED

Good luck with the group and I hope to be in a position in a few years' time to have multiple properties and take full advantage of any group discount you may achieve.

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18:25 PM, 16th August 2012, About 12 years ago

Unbelievable and yes it is pure coincidence but my insurance renews on 1st September, that's spooky!!
And yes a good idea.
I'd sign up to a group deal if I renewed on 1st September and it was cheaper.
After all an email is all that is required to quote to the LL

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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22:02 PM, 16th August 2012, About 12 years ago

@Recardo - I think you may have misread what I said. I didn't specify an amount for malicious damage. I also said ÂŁ5,000 MINIMUM contents cover. I do this even for unfurnished flats and always get landlords liability on them too as the freeholders policy doesn't provide that cover.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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22:19 PM, 16th August 2012, About 12 years ago

All insurance comes with a 14 day cooling of period so it's not too late to switch and you will not incur penalties 🙂

Recardo

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19:46 PM, 17th August 2012, About 12 years ago

Hi Mark, yes had another look you did say at least or ÂŁ5000. It's not enough. As i have to renew 2 policies the cover for malicious damage is quoted as ÂŁ5000. Others should read their renewal policies and be aware. just read about the assilum woman and her brood trashing a ÂŁ1.5m prorerty. As it seems most policies only covers ÂŁ5k, I bet it wasn't enought to cover your 22 skips and referb.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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20:31 PM, 17th August 2012, About 12 years ago

@Recardo ÂŁ5,000 of contents insurance was plenty for an unfurnished property. Malicious damage cover wasn't limited to the contents cover though, it was for the entire sum insured of the buildings. I thought that was the norm, otherwise, if a tenant committed arson and burned the property to the ground what would happen? In my case the insurer would pay for the entire rebuild. What's worrying is these days a lot of insurance companies don't offer to cover malicious damage caused by tenants at all and landlords who buy on price alone don't realise until it is too late. I'm happy to say that my insurance claim was fully paid. I still lost money though as the unpaid rent and costs of eviction were not recoverable.

Neil Patterson

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12:51 PM, 20th August 2012, About 12 years ago

Wow, I have been kept really busy with all the September renewals.
I have not had a chance to look at exactly how many, but we have hundreds of properties to get quotes for and hopefully drive prices down and cover up even further.
Thank you to everyone that has sent in their insurance renewal documents as that is a great help to get the quotes as quickly as possible.

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