Property cover

Landlord Insurance

what a let property needs that a home policy will not give you

Cover for a property you let: the liability you carry as its owner, the rent you lose when an insured event empties it, and the building itself where you insure it.

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Quick answerLandlord insurance is property cover written for a building somebody else lives in. Outside Scottish flats, no law requires it, though a buy-to-let lender will, and letting a property is a change your home insurer has to be told about. Two things on it get confused more than anything else: loss of rent, which pays when damage makes the property uninhabitable, and rent guarantee, which pays when a tenant stops paying. They are different purchases.

Written by the MyMoneyComparison.com editorial teamReviewed by Michael Harrington, Founder & DirectorUpdated September 2026

This page is about letting, not about owning. How a buildings sum insured is worked out, why rebuild cost is not market value and what underinsurance does are the same on any property and are set out on our home insurance page. What follows is what changes once somebody else lives there.

At a glance

Landlord Insurance at a Glance

The questions UK landlords raise first, answered in a line each.

Landlord insurance quick answers
Question	Quick answer
Is landlord insurance a legal requirement?	Not for a house. A buy-to-let lender will require buildings cover, and a flat owner in Scotland has a duty to insure the tenement.
Can I just keep my home insurance?	Not without telling the insurer. A home policy is written for an owner-occupier, and letting is a change they have to be told about.
What is property owners liability?	Your liability as owner for injury or damage arising from the property, to a tenant, a visitor or a passer-by.
Does it pay my rent if a tenant stops paying?	Not on its own. That is rent guarantee, a separate purchase with its own conditions.
What does loss of rent actually cover?	Rent you lose while an insured event, a fire or a flood, makes the property uninhabitable.
Do I need contents cover?	Only for what you own: carpets, white goods, furniture in a furnished let. A tenant insures their own things.
Does the tenant type matter?	Yes, a great deal. Students, benefit claimants and company lets are all rated differently and all have to be declared.
What about void periods?	Normal in letting, and restricted in most wordings. Cover reduces once a property is empty beyond a set number of days.

The basics

What Is Landlord Insurance?

Landlord insurance is property cover written on the understanding that the person living there is not the person insuring it. A house landlord is usually insuring the building and the liability; a flat landlord often has no buildings interest at all. That difference changes what each section has to do.

For a house, no law compels a landlord to buy it, though an owner of a flat in a Scottish tenement does have a duty to insure. What compels most landlords is a buy-to-let mortgage, which makes buildings cover a condition of the loan. The more expensive mistake is the quiet one: carrying on with an owner-occupier home policy after the tenants arrive. Our comparison of landlord and home insurance sets out where the two part company.

What a landlord policy has to do

Cover for a property occupied by somebody who does not own it
Liability as owner for injury or damage arising from the property
The rent lost while an insured event makes the place uninhabitable
Contents cover for the things the landlord owns rather than the tenant

Let versus lived in

What actually changes

Who is liableArising from the propertySimilar
Whose contentsOnly what you suppliedLandlord only
RentLost after an insured eventInsurable
Who lives thereTenant type is ratedDeclarable
Empty spellsVoid periods between tenanciesConditioned
The sum insuredRebuild cost, as on any propertyUnchanged

The middle four rows are what a landlord policy is actually for

How it works

How Does Landlord Insurance Work?

You describe the property and the letting, set the buildings and contents sums insured, and the policy runs for twelve months. What makes it different from a home policy is that the risk changes every time the tenancy does.

You describe the property and the letting
Where it is, what it is built of, how many bedrooms, and then the part a home quote never asks: who lives there, on what kind of tenancy, and how often it stands empty between them.
You set the sums insured
Rebuild cost for the buildings, and a separate figure for the contents you actually supplied. On a part-furnished flat that second number is usually far smaller than landlords expect.
You keep the insurer told through the tenancy
A change of tenant type, a long void, building work, a move from a single let to a share. Each one changes the risk that was priced, and each one needs saying at the time.

The obligation running under all of that is to take reasonable care answering what you are asked. Landlords are asked more than homeowners, because more can change: the tenant, the use, the occupancy, the works. If the property is empty for a spell, being refurbished, or let short-term, those are all separate products: unoccupied property insurance, property under renovation and short let cover.

What it covers

What Does Landlord Insurance Cover?

The building and the standard perils, liability as owner, the rent lost while an insured event makes it uninhabitable, and the contents you supplied. Tenant damage and rent guarantee sit outside that core.

Inside a landlord policy, and what has to be added to it
Cover	Where it sits	What to know
Fire, storm, flood and escape of water	Buildings	The standard perils, as on any property
Subsidence, heave and landslip	Buildings	Included as standard, with a much larger excess
Property owners liability	Its own section	Your liability as owner, for injury or damage arising from the property
Loss of rent after an insured event	Usually with buildings	Only where damage makes it uninhabitable
Alternative accommodation for the tenant	Usually with buildings	Where insured damage makes the property uninhabitable
Contents you supplied	Optional	Carpets, white goods, furniture. Not the tenant’s
Malicious damage by a tenant	Optional, often restricted	Frequently excluded or capped. Check it by name
Accidental damage	Optional	On buildings, contents, or both
Rent guarantee and legal expenses	A separate purchase	For a tenant who stops paying. Own conditions

Property owners liability is the row to read twice. It answers when a tenant is hurt by a loose stair rail or a passer-by by a falling tile, and it reaches liability arising from the property generally rather than only harm the structure itself does. It is a form of public liability rather than a different animal, and an owner-occupier buildings policy usually carries a version of it. What makes a policy a LANDLORD policy is that it permits the let and adds loss of rent, landlord contents and the occupancy conditions. Employers’ liability is separate, and compulsory where you employ someone rather than engage a self-employed trade.

The thing landlords confuse

Loss of Rent Versus Rent Guarantee

Loss of rent pays while an insured event stops the property being lived in. Rent guarantee pays when a tenant who could live there will not pay. Most landlords hold the first and believe it is the second.

Loss of rent compared with rent guarantee
	Loss of rent	Rent guarantee
What triggers it	Insured damage makes the property uninhabitable	The tenant stops paying
Where it sits	Usually alongside buildings cover	A separate purchase
Typical cause	Fire, flood, escape of water	Job loss, refusal to pay, dispute
Conditions attached	The damage has to be an insured event	Referencing, a proper tenancy agreement, an excess period
Legal costs of eviction	Not the point of it	Frequently bundled in
What it does not do	Nothing for arrears	Nothing for storm damage

The practical consequence is worth spelling out. A tenant who stops paying is a loss the standard policy has nothing at all to say about, however large it gets. Rent guarantee is the product for it, and its conditions are where it turns: insurers expect the tenant to have been referenced before the tenancy began, so buying it once the arrears have started is rarely possible. There is more in our guide to landlord policy exclusions.

Exclusions

What a Landlord Policy Leaves Out, and What Puts It at Risk

Wear and tear is never covered. What actually costs landlords a claim is different: a tenant type nobody declared, a void period that ran past the limit, the wrong name on the policy, and safety paperwork that lapsed.

A tenant type you did not declare

Students, benefit claimants and company lets are rated separately. Letting to a different group without saying so is a misrepresentation, not a detail.

A void period beyond the policy limit

Cover narrows once the property is empty beyond a set number of consecutive days, commonly between thirty and sixty.

The wrong name on the policy

If a limited company owns the property, the policy belongs in the company name. A personal policy over a company asset is found at claim time.

Wear, tear and gradual damage

Damp, failing pointing, a roof at the end of its life. Maintenance is the owner’s job on a let property too.

Safety obligations not met

A gas check every year, an electrical report every five. A liability claim is a poor moment to find a certificate lapsed.

Security conditions not actually used

Locks fitted but not used, an alarm left off. On a let property this is harder to control and no less binding.

The safety row needs care, because the duties are legal and the insurance consequence is indirect. A rented home in the UK needs an electrical installation report at least every five years and a gas safety check every year where there is gas, and in Scotland that five-yearly check covers the appliances the landlord supplies as well as the installation. None of that is an insurance rule. It matters because a liability claim turns on whether the property was kept safe.

Property types

Which Let Properties Can Be Covered?

Single lets, HMOs, flats, student and short lets, portfolios, mixed use and empty property. What narrows the market is who lives there and how often that changes, far more than the building itself.

Single lets

One house or flat on one tenancy. The easiest to place and the bulk of the market.

Buy-to-let cover

HMOs and shared houses

More tenants, more tenancies, licensing in many areas, and a narrower panel of insurers.

HMO guide

Flats and blocks

A leasehold flat is usually insured by the freeholder, so the landlord needs contents and liability. Scottish flats work the other way.

Block of flats

Student lets

Group tenancies, long summer voids and a tenant profile insurers rate on its own terms.

Short and holiday lets

Occupants changing every few nights or weeks rather than settling in. A standard landlord policy is not written for it.

Short let cover

Portfolios

Several properties on one schedule and one renewal date, priced together rather than one by one.

Portfolio cover

Mixed use and commercial

A flat over a shop, or a property let to a business. Rated as commercial rather than residential.

Commercial landlord

Empty or being worked on

A property between tenants or mid-refurbishment is a different risk and usually a different policy.

Unoccupied cover

Two of those are worth separating in your head. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland a leasehold flat is normally insured by the freeholder through a block policy, so the landlord frequently needs contents and liability rather than buildings at all. Scotland has no residential leasehold, so a flat owner there carries a share of the buildings duty instead. Our guide to buildings, contents and fixtures draws the line.

Who it’s for

Who Needs Landlord Insurance?

Anyone letting a property they own, whether that is one flat or forty. The group most exposed is the accidental landlord still carrying the home policy they had when they lived there.

Buy-to-let landlords

Where buildings cover is a condition of the mortgage and the lender will want to see it.

Accidental landlords

People letting a property they used to live in, who are the likeliest of all to still be on a home policy.

HMO and student landlords

Higher occupancy, licensing in many areas, and a tenant profile that has to be declared accurately.

Portfolio landlords

Several properties, where one schedule and one renewal date beat a stack of separate policies.

Company and SPV landlords

Where the property is owned by a limited company, and the policy has to be in that company name.

Anyone a mainstream form declined

Unusual construction, a claims history or a tenant type a consumer quote form has no question for.

The company point catches more landlords every year as properties move into limited companies. The policy has to name whoever actually owns the building. A policy in a director’s own name over a property owned by their company is a mismatch, and it surfaces at the claim rather than at the quote. Several properties held that way belong on portfolio cover.

Pricing

What Affects Landlord Insurance Costs?

Postcode, construction and the sums insured do what they do on any property. What is specific to letting is who lives there, how the tenancy is structured and how much of the year the property stands empty.

Landlord premium drivers, and which of them you can actually shift
Factor	Can you change it?	What to know
Who the tenants are	Partly	The single most landlord-specific factor, and the one most often wrong
The postcode	Not in your control	Flood risk, subsidence risk and local claims all sit inside it
The rebuild sum insured	Yours to set	Worked out the same way as on any property, and worth calculating
Age and construction	Not in your control	Older and non-standard buildings narrow the panel
How the property is let	Partly	One tenancy or several, furnished or not, licensed or not
Void periods	Partly	How often and how long it stands empty between tenancies
Claims at the property	Not in the short term	Including claims made by whoever owned it before you
Security and maintenance	Yours to change	Approved locks, alarms, and a property visibly looked after

No sample premiums appear on this page. A single let in one postcode and an HMO two streets away are priced so differently that a printed average describes neither, and landlord pricing moves with weather, building costs and claims inflation like any other property cover. The factors above are stable. The numbers are not.

Before you start

Getting Ready for a Landlord Insurance Quote

Postcode, construction and a calculated rebuild figure, then the letting itself: tenant type, number of tenancies, void pattern, licensing, ownership name and safety certificate dates.

About the property

Postcode, year built, walls and roof construction
Bedrooms, and whether any of the roof is flat
Listed status, previous flood, subsidence or underpinning
A rebuild figure, calculated rather than guessed

About the letting

Who the tenants are, and on what kind of agreement
How many separate tenancies the property runs
How long it typically stands empty between them
Whether it is licensed, and whether you use an agent

About you

Whether you or a company owns it, and the exact name
Claims at this property in the last few years
Any unspent convictions, yours or a joint owner’s
Current gas and electrical safety dates

Two of those are worth extra care. The ownership name has to match whoever is on the title, not whoever manages the property or pays for the policy. And tenant type is a question about the current tenancy rather than about your intentions: a property let to students this year is a student let, whatever was planned when it was bought. There is more in how to get landlord quotes.

Compare with MyMoneyComparison.com

How to Compare Landlord Insurance

The liability section varies more between wordings than the premium does, loss of rent and rent guarantee are different products, and what each wording says about damage caused by tenants is where landlord policies diverge most.

The liability section, not just the premium
What property owners liability covers and to what limit varies between wordings more than most sections do, and it is the least read part of a landlord policy.
Loss of rent and rent guarantee are separate
Different products with different triggers, so a quote that includes one is not a quote that includes the other.
Where the wordings diverge on tenants
Malicious damage by a tenant, theft by a tenant and damage during a void are the three places landlord policies differ most from each other.

Tell us the property type here and the UK property brokers we work with can come back to you. We introduce, we do not arrange: MyMoneyComparison.com holds no authority to advise you or to sell you a policy, and the broker you pick does both. Our editorial policy sets that out, our guide to comparing landlord cover covers what to weigh, and the jargon buster translates the wording.

Cutting costs

How Can You Reduce Landlord Insurance Costs?

The levers that exist are the accuracy of the rebuild figure, the security fitted, how long the property stands empty between tenancies, how well it is maintained and whether several properties sit on one schedule.

An accurate rebuild figure

Guessing high wastes money every year and guessing low cuts the claim. A calculated figure does neither.

Tenants referenced, tenancies documented

Referencing does not cut the buildings premium, but it is the condition most rent guarantee cover turns on.

Security that is fitted and used

Approved locks and a working alarm reduce the price. On a let property, using them is something the tenancy has to cover as well as the policy.

Shorter voids between tenancies

Empty property is where the restrictions bite, so the time between tenancies is a risk factor as well as a cash-flow one.

A property visibly maintained

Inspections, repairs done promptly and certificates in date. It prices better and it answers a liability claim.

One schedule rather than several

From a few properties, a portfolio policy is worth pricing against a stack of individual ones rather than assumed either way.

We publish no savings figures. A "save up to" claim means nothing without the sample and method that produced it. What is worth saying plainly is that the cheapest thing on that list, re-letting promptly, is also the one that shortens the period when the policy is at its most restricted.

Jargon buster

Landlord Insurance Jargon, Explained

Landlord policy vocabulary, translated. A broader glossary sits in our insurance jargon buster, and the product itself is defined in what is landlord insurance.

Property owners liability: Your liability as owner for injury or damage arising from the property.
Loss of rent: Rent lost while an insured event makes the property uninhabitable.
Rent guarantee: A separate product paying when a tenant stops paying.
Landlord contents: The things you supplied, not the tenant’s belongings.
Void period: A spell between tenancies with nobody living there.
HMO: A house in multiple occupation, let to several unrelated households.
Tenant type: Who lives there, which is rated and has to be declared.
SPV: A limited company set up to hold property, which must be the named policyholder.

Why MyMoneyComparison.com

Comparing Specialist Landlord Insurance

MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces landlords to the specialist property brokers we work with. We do not sell insurance and we do not advise: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free.

1

Form, not one per broker

Describe the property once, instead of repeating the same questions to broker after broker.

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Advice given

We are an introducer, not a broker. We do not sell policies and we do not recommend one. Read our editorial policy.

FCA

Authorised and regulated

MyMoneyComparison.com Ltd appears on the FCA register under FRN 916241.

2013

Comparing since

A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.

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FAQs

Landlord Insurance FAQs

The questions UK landlords ask most.

Is landlord insurance a legal requirement in the UK?

For a house, no. What makes most landlords buy it is a buy-to-let mortgage, because lenders require buildings cover as a condition of the loan and will ask for evidence. A landlord who owns outright carries the same risk with nobody insisting. Scotland is the exception: an owner of a flat in a tenement is obliged to hold common buildings insurance, and co-owners can ask to see it.

Can I keep my home insurance when I let the property out?

Not without telling the insurer, and this is the most expensive assumption on the page. A home policy is written on the basis that the owner lives there, so letting is a change of risk they have to be told about. Told, they will either amend the policy or move you on to a landlord one. Not told, an insurer can reduce a claim, and can treat the policy as never having existed where the answer was a deliberate one.

What is property owners liability?

It covers your liability as owner if something to do with the property injures someone or damages their things: a tenant hurt by a loose stair rail, a visitor by a falling tile, a neighbour by a collapsing wall. It is a form of public liability, and an owner-occupier buildings policy usually includes a version of it. What a landlord policy adds is permission to let, loss of rent, landlord contents and the occupancy conditions.

What is the difference between loss of rent and rent guarantee?

Loss of rent pays the rent you lose while an insured event, typically fire or flood, makes the property uninhabitable. Rent guarantee pays when a tenant who could live there stops paying. The first usually comes with buildings cover; the second is a separate purchase. Most landlords hold the first and believe they hold the second.

Does rent guarantee have conditions attached?

Yes, and they are the point. Insurers generally expect the tenant to have been referenced before the tenancy started, a proper written tenancy agreement to be in place, and an excess period to pass before payments begin. Buying it once arrears have already begun is rarely possible, which is why it is a decision for the start of a tenancy.

Do I need contents insurance on a rented property?

Only for what you own. Carpets, curtains, white goods and any furniture you supplied are landlord contents; everything the tenant brought is theirs to insure. On an unfurnished let the figure is usually far smaller than landlords assume, and on a furnished one a room-by-room total comes out higher than a guess does.

Does my policy cover damage caused by tenants?

Sometimes, and it is one of the least consistent parts of the market. Accidental damage by a tenant is often available as an option. Malicious damage by a tenant is frequently excluded outright or capped at a low figure, and theft by a tenant is commonly excluded altogether. All three are worth finding by name in a wording rather than assuming they agree.

What happens when the property is empty between tenants?

Most policies restrict cover once a property has been unoccupied for a set number of consecutive days, commonly somewhere between thirty and sixty, and escape of water and theft are usually the first things to go. Void periods are normal in letting and abnormal in a policy wording, which is why a long one is something insurers expect to hear about.

Do I have to declare what kind of tenants I have?

Yes, always. Students, benefit claimants, company lets, asylum accommodation and professional single lets are rated differently from one another. Changing tenant type without telling the insurer is a misrepresentation rather than an administrative detail, and it is one of the commonest reasons a landlord claim is reduced or refused.

Whose name should the policy be in?

Whoever owns the property on the title. If a limited company or an SPV owns it, the policy belongs in the company name, not the director’s. A personal policy over a company-owned building is a mismatch that tends to surface at the claim rather than at the quote, and it is easily avoided at the start.

Do I need landlord insurance for a flat?

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually contents and liability rather than buildings: the freeholder insures the structure through a block policy and recovers the cost in the service charge. Check the lease, because some arrangements put that duty on the leaseholder. Scotland has no residential leasehold, so a flat owner there holds a share of the buildings duty for the tenement themselves.

Is HMO insurance different from standard landlord insurance?

Yes. More tenants and more separate tenancies mean a higher claims frequency, licensing applies in many areas, and a good deal fewer insurers will quote automatically. It is still ordinary landlord cover in shape, but it is rated on its own terms, and the brokers who write it do so deliberately rather than by accident.

Does landlord insurance cover the boiler and appliances?

Not as breakdown cover. The policy answers sudden and accidental events, so a boiler damaged by a fire is a claim and a boiler that has simply failed is a maintenance cost. Home emergency cover is the separate product that deals with breakdown, and landlords weigh its annual cost against what a callout would be.

What about safety certificates?

They are legal duties rather than insurance conditions, but they matter to insurance. A rented home needs an electrical installation report at least every five years and, where there is gas, a gas safety check every year. In Scotland the five-yearly check extends to appliances the landlord supplies as well as the fixed installation. A liability claim turns on whether the property was kept safe, so a lapsed certificate is an awkward document to be missing.

Can I insure several properties on one policy?

Yes, and from a few properties it usually makes sense. A portfolio policy puts everything on one schedule with one renewal date, and properties can be added and removed during the year rather than bought and cancelled separately. It also means one claim affects the renewal for the whole portfolio.

Does landlord insurance cover short lets and holiday lets?

Not as standard. A short let turns over its occupants every few nights or weeks rather than settling somebody in for the long term, and the holiday-let end of it runs on a licence to occupy rather than a tenancy at all. Either way it is a materially different risk, and a standard landlord wording is not written for it. It needs a policy written for short-term letting instead.

Will a previous claim at the property affect my premium?

Yes, and claims attach to the address as well as to the claimant, so a subsidence or flood claim made by a previous owner is still a material fact you will be asked about. The conveyancing paperwork usually shows it, and it is better found before the quote than at the claim.

How much does landlord insurance cost?

We publish no figures. A single let and an HMO on the same street can be priced very differently, and landlord premiums move with weather, building costs and claims inflation. Any average would mislead almost everyone reading it. What we can tell you is what moves the number, which is set out above.

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About this page

This page is about what changes when somebody else lives in a property you own: the liability you carry, the rent you can insure, the contents that are yours rather than the tenant’s, and the declarations a let property needs that an owner-occupied one does not. It is general information rather than advice. Policies differ, so read your own documents and put the questions raised here to your insurer or broker. How a buildings sum insured is worked out is the same on any property and sits on our home insurance page.

How we approached this page

UK landlord policy wordings and broker guidance, for what the standard sections actually reach
Published material on rent guarantee conditions, for what insurers expect before they will pay
Government guidance on landlord electrical and gas safety duties, which differ by nation
The Financial Conduct Authority register, for checking a firm before dealing with it

No premium figures and no savings claims appear here. Landlord pricing varies so widely by property, tenant and postcode that any average would mislead almost everyone reading it. Three things in wide circulation are corrected on this page: that a home policy carries on unchanged once a property is let, that loss of rent pays when a tenant stops paying, and that damage caused by tenants is covered as standard.