Commercial buildings insurance for landlords

In case disaster hits and your property gets damaged.

What’s typically covered by landlord commercial building insurance?

• damage to your property caused by incidents like fire, lightning, explosion, malicious damage and escape of water

For example:

• you’re renting your property to a bakery business, and an overnight fire causes structural damage, forcing a partial rebuild

What you’ll need additional cover for

• accidental damage to the property caused by your tenants – you’ll need to add our specific accidental damage cover for this

Read more about buildings insurance for landlords

Commercial landlords’ contents insurance

In case disaster hits and your contents get damaged.

What’s typically covered by commercial landlords’ contents insurance?

• damage to your contents caused by incidents like fire, lightning, explosion, malicious damage and escape of water
• contents include things like your appliances and furniture

For example:

• a burst pipe in the toilets at your property causes damage to your mirrors and woodwork
• artwork and other decorative items belonging to you are stolen during a break-in at your tenant’s shop

Read more about landlords contents insurance

Commercial landlords’ improvements insurance

In case you make structural changes to your property.

What’s typically covered by commercial landlords’ improvements insurance?

• changes to the structure of your property, like partition walls or wooden flooring (things you’d leave behind if you sold the property)

For example:

• a builder scratches some new wooden flooring you’ve installed, and you need to repair it

Accidental damage insurance

In case someone accidentally damages your property or contents.

What’s typically covered by accidental damage insurance?

Claims against your business for:

unexpected physical damage to your property or contents, caused by your tenants, their customers and visitors, or other members of the public

For example:

• during a renovation job your shop property’s front window is accidentally smashed
• your tenant is erecting a new sign and damages your property’s guttering

Read more about accidental damage insurance

Rental income protection insurance

In case damage to the property stops your tenants trading, and paying rent.

What’s typically covered by rental income protection insurance?

• damage to the property which prevents your tenants from trading, and being able to pay the rent

For example:

• a leak in your property causes significant damage, and your tenant has to vacate their shop for eight weeks while repair works are carried out
• there’s a break-in at your property and the yoga studio your tenant runs has to shut for two months, due to the level of vandalism caused

What you’ll need additional cover for

• your tenants defaulting on the rent for any other reason

Read more about rental income protection

Property owners’ liability insurance

In case you’re legally responsible for injuries or property damage, as owner of the building.

What’s typically covered by property owners’ liability insurance?

• legal liability for injuries, accidental loss or damage, as the owner of the property

For example:

• your tenant’s customer trips on a raised paving slab outside your property’s entrance, breaking their wrist
• while locking up, your tenant is hit by a falling roof tile, which cuts their head and smashes their laptop screen

Read more about landlord liability insurance

Excess protection

In case you need to pay an insurance excess, and want to claim it back.

What’s typically covered by excess protection?

• excess payments on claims* (the excess is the part of the claim you’re responsible for paying, set out in your policy)

For example:

• there’s a flood at your property and you need to make £750 of repairs. Ordinarily you’d be responsible for paying some of the cost yourself (the excess), but with excess protection, this could be covered

the claim amount must be more than the value of the excess

Employers’ liability insurance

In case someone working directly for your rental blames you for an injury or illness

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

• claims for employee illness and injuries, if they’re working directly for you and your property

Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you directly. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.

For example:

the gardener you’ve employed to tidy up the lawns trips and sprains her wrist while cutting down some hedging you’ve employed a full-time cleaner for your property – while working, they trip on some loose stair carpet, falling and breaking their arm

What you’ll need additional cover for

• do you hire a self-employed cleaner, or other staff? If so, they may need their own self-employed insurance, and won’t be covered by the policy you have in place

Read more about landlords contents insurance

What if my property is unoccupied?

If you’ve bought insurance for an unoccupied property, you’ll be asked to confirm if the property is expected to be occupied within 60 days of the policy starting.

After this, you must contact us to confirm when the property becomes occupied – if you don’t tell us, this can cause a delay in any claims being processed.

You should also be aware that you can’t claim for lost rent under the loss of rent section of your insurance if your property becomes unoccupied.

What if my tenant’s situation changes?

If your tenant’s employment status changes – or if a new tenant moves in and their employment status is different to the previous tenant – you’ll need to tell us immediately. If you don’t, it could cause a delay in any claims being processed.

Are carpets and curtains covered?

The definition of ‘fixtures and fittings’ will depend on the insurer – sometimes, it will include laminate flooring, carpets, curtains and blinds.

It’s a good idea to check the wording in your policy to understand what’s covered.

Read more about contents insurance for landlords and buildings insurance.

Will tenant default insurance cover me if my property becomes unoccupied?

If your property becomes unoccupied, you won’t be able to make a claim for lost rent under tenant default cover.

This also applies if your tenant falls into arrears and can’t pay their rent, but you’re not planning to evict them. You can only claim for lost rent under tenant default cover if you start repossession proceedings.

Read more about tenant default insurance and rent guarantee insurance.

What if I’m subletting my property?

It’s vital that any tenancy agreement that you have is between you and the occupant of the property.

If the occupant of your property has a tenancy agreement with a third party (such as a letting agency or a local authority) and not you as the property owner, then your insurance policy could be cancelled and you won’t be able to make any claims.

Do I need any other additional landlord covers?

You can add a range of other important covers to your landlord insurance policy, all while keeping it simple with a single premium and a single renewal date. You might consider these covers:

• Landlord insurance
• Buy to let insurance
• Building insurance
• Unoccupied property insurance
• Multi property landlord insurance
• Residential landlord insurance
• Alternative accommodation