A: Not all landlord policies include damage caused by the tenants themselves or people lawfully entitled to be on the premises. So firstly check if your policy includes this important cover. If covered, claiming should not prejudice your position; after all that’s why you pay for insurance. Most landlord policies do not have a “No Claims Bonus” (as with vehicles) so one or two claims should not affect the insurer’s position or your premium. However, if a pattern seems to appear, or several similar claims occur on the same property, alarm bells will start ringing with underwriters who may feel that you are not making adequate provisions to restrict or stop a re-occurrence.

In these situations it is more likely a higher claims excess may be applied at renewal. It’s not uncommon for a standard £100 excess to be increased to £500 or even £1,000 for any malicious damage claim if there is a history of problems. We have even seen an “exclusion” for certain type of claims be applied in extreme circumstances. Having said this, some individual BTL policies do have an underwriting discount applied behind the scenes for “no claims”, so any claim may impact that “hidden” discount, effectively increasing your premium at renewal.

To be 100% sure, discuss actual individual circumstances on your own policy with your provider.

A: By offering this type of letting option, you will be acting as the managing agent and facilities manager as well as the letting agent. Not only will you need to inform the current buildings insurer of the specific tenure and nature of the arrangement, but you also have the additional implied liability of providing the surrounding “professional advice” associated with these serviced lets.

You will undoubtedly need the basic Public and Employer’s Liability as well as Professional Indemnity (Pii) plus the usual Buildings Structure insurance. Please be aware that any insurer covering the Buildings Structure will need to be advised that you are providing serviced accommodation as this is classed as “non-standard” and may need referring to underwriters to ensure full cover will operate in the event of a claim.

This is something we are increasingly being asked to deal with these days. Pii will cover you against the financial impact of giving incorrect advice or making a professional error or omission which then gives rise to a financial loss claim against you. This is completely different to Public Liability insurance (PL) which only extends to cover third party bodily injury or property damage physically caused by you in your duties carrying out your day-to-day business activities.

A: Yes… however, cover will be restricted to the damage caused by the water to your flat and not extended to fix the actual leak itself. Your insurers would want confirmation that the actual leak had been fixed prior to paying out, as if it had not been fixed what would stop a re-occurrence of the same issues later?

This is a known and well understood problem, and is one of the reasons that Blocks of Flats are insured in their entirety in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This way, any claim will be made on the block policy which should additionally have as standard “Trace & Access” cover to pay for the leak to be found and isolated, as well as material damage cover for not only your flat but also residual damage to upstairs accommodation and any affected common parts of the building.