Rent Protection?

[Deleted User]

Hi

I'm looking for a bit of advice from people in the know...

Im a relatively new landlord (a couple of years) but have had 2 episodes of leaks from the flat above (in a tenament building). The second episode was severe and occurred at the end of one of the tenancies, thus delaying me renting the flat out again.

Is there any scheme or form of "rent protection" whereby if a leak caused by someone else's flat damages your flat, whilst there are tenants in, and the flat is unlivable in (and therefore you can't collect rent) that covers you for the loss of rent? Or can this be reclaimed via the third party? Im assuming it would be difficult to claim from the insurance company particularly as it is a block policy?

Does anybody have any ideas, as this has happened twice, Ive just spent a lot of money to upgrade the flat to make it really nice for the new tenants, and am worried about it happening again.

Thanks folk :beer:

Rabiddog_2

Monetary loss that is not your fault, should be claimed from the insurance company. If you get insurance to cover your rent , then other insurers will expect you to claim back on this, but they in their turn should claim from the other insurance company.

[Deleted User]

Thanks. However - whats the situation if all flats in the block are covered by the same insurance company - will that company still pay out for the loss of rent?

Premier_2

If you are out of pocket because of the actions (or inactions) of someone else, your claim is against that person.

Don't worry about insurance companies at present - it's up to the person you are claiming from to pass such claim to an insurance company if that's what they want to do (and they are covered for such claims)

lynzpower

Is this with "factors" I see so much about on here?

[Deleted User]

The factors actually own the property and let it out to a family, who denied any leaks on each occasion until the factors plumbers went round and said there was one.

Ive written to the factors saying if it happens again I'll take legal action. I lost out on about 3 weeks rent which wasnt as bad as it could have been, but if it happens again in the middle of a tenancy and the flat is unliveable in, then I could lose out on up to a couple of months.

The insurance company currently covering the block doesnt offer rent protection for 'business policies' so im assuming that if I wanted a form of rent protection I would either need to get new insurance or additional cover fom another policy. Would people recommend this or recommend pursuing the third party (ie the factors) through legal channels if this happened again?