What does landlord insurance actually cover?

UK-wide.

Section by section

Section	What it pays for	Typical exclusions
Buildings	Rebuilding or repairing the structure after fire, flood, storm, escape of water, subsidence, impact, theft damage	Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, faulty workmanship, damage during an unnotified void
Property owners’ liability	Compensation and legal costs where a tenant or visitor is injured, or their property damaged, because of the property	Injury to your own employees (that is employers’ liability), deliberate acts
Loss of rent / alternative accommodation	Rent lost, and rehousing costs, while the property is uninhabitable after an insured event	Tenant default, voids between tenancies, uninhabitability caused by disrepair you failed to fix
Landlord’s contents	Your carpets, curtains, white goods, furniture in a furnished let	The tenant’s belongings, items outside the sum insured
Malicious damage by tenant	Deliberate damage beyond fair wear and tear	Frequently excluded as standard; often needs the tenant to be prosecuted or a police reference
Accidental damage	One-off accidents — a foot through a ceiling, a drilled pipe	Gradual damage, anything deliberate
Legal expenses	Costs of pursuing possession or a dispute	Matters arising before the policy started; claims with poor prospects
Employers’ liability	Injury to someone you employ, such as a regular cleaner	Genuine contractors with their own insurance

The three things that defeat claims

1. The wrong policy

Letting a property insured on a residential buildings policy voids the cover. It is not a technicality an insurer might overlook — the risk they priced is not the risk they are carrying. This catches accidental landlords most: the flat kept on after moving in with a partner, the inherited house let out, the policy left running because switching felt like admin. Tell the insurer the day the use changes.

2. The unnotified void

Most policies restrict cover once a property is empty for 30, 45 or 60 consecutive days — typically dropping back to fire, lightning and explosion, and excluding escape of water and theft. Since May 2026 tenants can leave on two months’ notice at any point, so unplanned voids are more common. Read your limit, diarise it, and tell the insurer when a property goes empty. A burst pipe in an unnotified empty flat is the classic declined claim.

3. Underinsurance

The buildings sum insured should be the rebuild cost, not the market value, and rebuild costs have risen sharply. If you are insured for 70% of the true rebuild cost, an insurer can reduce a claim proportionately — so a £20,000 fire claim pays £14,000. Reassess the figure at renewal rather than letting it index quietly.

How a claim actually works

1. Make it safe and stop it getting worse. Turn off the water, board up, get an emergency plumber. Insurers expect you to mitigate, and the cost of doing so is usually covered.
2. Notify quickly. Policies require prompt notification and late notice is a reason to decline.
3. Photograph everything before anything is cleared, and keep damaged items until you are told otherwise.
4. Do not commit to repairs before the insurer approves, unless it is genuinely emergency work.
5. Expect a loss adjuster on anything substantial, and have your paperwork ready — the schedule, the tenancy agreement, your gas and electrical certificates.

That last point matters more than it looks. An insurer investigating a fire will ask for the gas safety record and the EICR. A lapsed certificate can turn a covered event into an argument about whether you met the policy conditions.

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