Protect your investment with landlords insurance that is designed to pay out when you need it

Home insurance is built around the person living in the property. Once you rent it out, that policy almost certainly won’t pay out for tenant-related damage, loss of rent or the public liability risks landlords face. Most insurers will treat a let property as uninsured under a standard home policy, so you need specialist landlord’s insurance for the property to be properly protected.

At its core, it covers the buildings against the usual perils such as fire, flood, storm and escape of water. Paymentshield also includes property owners’ liability of up to £2 million, cover for damage to outbuildings within 100 metres of the property, and malicious damage caused by a tenant as standard. You can add contents cover if the property is furnished, and there’s a range of optional extras for things like rent protection, legal expenses and 24-hour emergency call-out.

Loss of rent kicks in when the property becomes uninhabitable due to an insured event, such as a fire or major leak, and your tenants have to move out. The policy then covers the rent you would have received while the property is being repaired, so your income doesn’t dry up because of the damage.

If there’s a leak somewhere behind a wall or under the floor, finding it can mean lifting tiles, cutting into plasterboard or pulling up flooring. Trace and access cover pays for that investigation work and the cost of putting your walls, floors and ceilings back together afterwards. Paymentshield’s policy includes it as standard, with the leak fixed properly rather than patched up.

Malicious damage by tenants is included as standard with Paymentshield. Accidental damage isn’t part of the standard policy, though it can be added as an optional extra for both buildings and contents if you’d like that extra peace of mind.

Yes. Paymentshield can cover properties owned by private individuals or through a business, including SPVs commonly used for buy-to-let. There are a few eligibility questions, mainly around previous insurance history and convictions for any principal, director or partner, which we’ll walk through on the call.

Standard Paymentshield landlord’s cover is designed for properties let to up to six individual tenants under a single tenancy agreement. Bedsits and properties divided into self-contained units with their own cooking facilities aren’t eligible under this product. If your setup falls outside that, let us know and we’ll talk through your options.

You can set up Landlord’s Insurance well in advance of completion. We’ll get everything ready while the solicitors do their bit, and only put the policy ‘on risk’ once you have an exchange date confirmed. That way your cover is in place from day one and you only pay from the date you actually need it.

We’ve negotiated a 5% discount with Paymentshield, so it costs you less through us than going to them directly. You also get our help with the paperwork, making sure the cover suits your particular situation, and someone to call if you ever need to claim. We don’t charge any fees for landlord’s insurance advice.