Landlord Insurance: The Complete UK Guide

What landlord insurance actually is

“Landlord insurance” isn't one product — it's a bundle of covers sold together, and every UK insurer we checked (Simply Business, Alan Boswell, Direct Line for Business, Total Landlord, CIA Landlords, Just Landlords, HomeLet and AXA) structures it broadly the same way: a buildings and/or contents core, plus a set of optional add-ons. The full provider-by-provider comparison has the exact cover list each of those eight names publishes; here's what the categories mean.

Buildings insurance

Covers the structure itself — walls, roof, fixed fittings — against fire, storm, flood, escape of water, subsidence and similar named perils, plus (on most policies) malicious damage or theft by a tenant, which a standard homeowner's buildings policy typically doesn't anticipate. If you have a mortgage, this is the cover your lender's mortgage conditions require; see “is it legally required?” below.

Contents insurance

Covers what you, the landlord, provide — furniture, white goods, carpets, curtains in a furnished or part-furnished let. It does not cover a tenant's own belongings; tenants need their own contents policy for those, and several insurers say as much on their own pages.

Liability (property owners' liability)

Covers you if someone — a tenant, a visitor, a contractor — is injured or has property damaged because of something connected to the building, and holds you legally responsible: HomeLet's own page, for example, advertises liability cover up to £5 million. This is one of the covers most providers treat as close to non-negotiable for a rented property.

Loss of rent / rental income protection

Pays out if the property becomes uninhabitable after an insured event (a fire or flood, for example) and you lose rent while it's repaired, or covers the cost of alternative accommodation for the tenant in the meantime. This is different from rent guarantee, below — it responds to damage, not to a tenant simply not paying.

Rent guarantee / tenant default cover

A separate, usually optional, product that pays out if a tenant stops paying rent, sometimes bundled with legal costs of pursuing eviction. Availability and the exact trigger (missed payments, or only after a court order) vary by provider — Simply Business's own page, for instance, describes cover of up to £100,000 in rental indemnity across 12 months if eviction becomes necessary; other providers price and structure it differently. Check the policy wording, not just the headline figure.

Legal expenses insurance

Covers legal costs — commonly eviction, rent-arrears recovery and repossession proceedings — that you'd otherwise pay yourself. Several of the providers we checked sell it as an optional add-on rather than building it into the core policy.

Is landlord insurance legally required?

No UK statute requires it. Simply Business's own guidance is direct: “If you own a property, buildings insurance isn't a legal requirement, but it will usually be required by your mortgage lender.” In practice that makes it close to compulsory for most landlords: a buy-to-let mortgage lender's terms will require valid buildings cover for as long as the loan runs, and can demand repayment of the whole mortgage if cover lapses. If you own a leasehold flat, the lease itself may require buildings insurance too — often arranged and recharged by the freeholder rather than bought by you directly.

What standard home insurance won't cover once you let a property

An ordinary homeowner's policy is written for an owner-occupier, and insurers generally treat letting the property as a change of risk you're required to declare. In practice a standard home policy stops responding, or can be voided outright, once you become a landlord rather than an occupier — which is exactly why a specialist landlord policy exists, covering tenant-related risks (malicious damage by a tenant, extended cover during void periods between tenancies, liability toward a tenant) an owner-occupier policy was never priced for.

Unoccupied-property conditions

Most landlord policies place conditions on cover once a property sits empty beyond a set number of days — commonly somewhere in the 30–60 day range, though the exact figure and what it requires (extra security, notifying the insurer, a specific unoccupied-property extension) varies genuinely by insurer and we won't print a single number as if it were universal. If you expect a gap between tenancies, or you're planning refurbishment before re-letting, check this condition on your specific policy rather than assuming standard cover carries on unchanged.

HMOs and multi-property portfolios

An HMO carries a materially different risk profile — more occupants, shared facilities, higher turnover — and several insurers we checked sell it as a distinct product rather than a variant of standard landlord cover; a standard single-let policy may not respond to an HMO claim at all. Landlords with several properties are usually better served by a multi-property or portfolio policy, which several providers (Alan Boswell, AXA) offer explicitly, rather than separate policies for each address — usually cheaper and simpler to manage, and it avoids a gap where a property is technically uninsured because a single-property renewal was missed.

What to compare

Price is the easiest thing to compare and the least useful one on its own. The cost page and the comparison table go into this in detail, but the short version: check the buildings sum insured (rebuild cost, not market value), the liability limit, whether rent guarantee and legal expenses are included or optional, the excess, and any unoccupied-property or HMO restrictions, before comparing headline price.

Tax: the premium is deductible

Landlord insurance premiums are a normal running cost of the letting business, deductible from rental income in the year you pay them — our is landlord insurance tax deductible? page covers the mechanics, apportionment on a mixed-use property, and how a payout itself is taxed.

Simply Business: is buildings insurance a legal requirement? · Simply Business: landlord insurance · HomeLet: landlord insurance, all read live 12 September 2026. The unoccupied-property day-threshold is deliberately not stated as a single figure — it varies by insurer and we could not verify one universal number.