What if your neighbour is uninsured?

As all landlords know, it is vitally important to insure all their let properties for the various risks that might occur – a fire, water leak, storm damage or break in. This is where specialist landlord building insurance is useful because it offers specialist cover for properties which are rented.

However, one risk that you cannot always allow for is if your neighbour is uninsured and damage to their property causes damage to your property too. Only today a client that I was speaking to asked me that very question, wondering if this would leave him totally unprotected.

Thankfully, in most cases, you as the property owner will still be protected as long as you have adequate cover for your own property. For example, if a fire in a neighbouring property also caused fire damage in your property, and the neighbour was not insured, as long as the cause of the fire is ordinarily covered by the insurance you as the landlord have in place, your insurer should still be able to deal with your claim in the usual way. It would then be up to the insurer to try and recover its own costs through appropriate legal means. However, claims such as these will always be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by your insurer as the circumstances can be very specific to each set of circumstances.

The issue of uninsured properties came to light in the last year following the flooding of summer 2007. Research by Abbey estimated that up to one in four of all properties affected by the floods of last summer were not insured. Although this would not have a direct impact on other homeowners because everyone in a street may be affected, it highlights the potential for problems that uninsured properties might cause if they suffered a catastrophic loss.

This only makes it all the more important to have adequate landlord building insurance in place. As a sensible precaution it is advised anyway, and CLICK4QUOTE.COM strongly recommends that all landlords have appropriate cover. If you are unsure how this affects you, we are always happy to chat about your insurance needs with you by telephone on 08450 89 90 91, or by email at enquiries@click4quote.com.