Tennants insurance for private furnished flat

j19

I have no clue about tenants insurance, so I am hoping someone can fill me in.

I am looking for the following:

1) Contents insurance for our own possessions, simple enough
2) Insurance against our liability for accidental damage to property owned by the landlord - i.e. if we bring our own washing machine, and that breaks and floods the flat and needs carpets replacing, we want to be insured against that

Is there such a thing? Any recommended insurers?

geri1965_2

Most contents policies provide cover for personal liability as standard, although for a claim of this nature to succeed you would have to be proven to be negligent. If your washing machine just broke down and flooded the flat, you wouldn't be considered negligent unless you knew there was a problem with it and didn't bother to get it sorted out.

j19

What should I be looking for if I wanted cover for this kind of non-negligent damage to property caused by our contents?

geri1965_2

I've no idea if such a thing is possible. Doesn't the landlord have insurance for them?

dogbot

Contents insurance usualy comes with tenants liability cover. This will be a relativly small % of the sum insured.

Furnished places can be harder to find cover for, try Endsleigh or other mid sized and local brokers.

You only need to worry about the washing machine flooding the flat example if you have been NEGLIGENT. If not, it is up to the landlord to insure the buildings and his/her contents against damage. If you keep the machine clean and make sure it is installed correctly and regularly check the pipes etc then you should be fine.

You can't insure the landlords property because you have no legal ("insurable") interest in it, so you really don't need to worry about it other than taking reasonable/good care of it. The exception may be where the terms of your tenancy agreement make you liable to insure the whole contents - In which case insurable interest is created. This is very rare but you might like to check your AST agreement.

Edit: Your own property would be covered by your contents policy under the peril "escape of water". The landlord would have the same peril covered by his policy.

j19

Thanks

Went with Endsleigh as suggested. £30k contents cover, and whatever contents cover you take out, they provide 10% of that in liability cover (to damage of property in the flat which isn't yours).

dacouch

Jimpsed the 10% cover is called Tenants Liability and will cover you for damage to your landlords contents / fiittings etc you are legally liable for the damage of. If there is damage and you put a claim in they will want to check your Tenancy Agreement to check it makes you liable for the damage, if it doesn't they won't cover it.

Bear in mind your landlord cannot make you pay for normal "Wear and Tear" to his property