Tenants Liability Insurance?

Chris_P_2

What exactly is this.Im moving very soon and the letting agent said i have to have this before i get the keys.

Is it different to normal Tenants insurance?

Thanks

G_M

May or may not be the same - depends on the insurer's definition. Basically you can insure

1) your own poseesions (usually called contents or maybe tenant contents insurance)

2) your liability to the landlord - eg if you break something belonging to him, not you.

You might be able to buy both in the same policy.

However, liability insurance is a rip-off. The LL should have his own insurance for his property, and is contents within it. Furthermore, the LL will have taken a deposit from you. This is to pay for anything you break/damage (+ rent arrears etc).

Often agents push the 'liability insurance' because they want to sell i themselves and get commission.

If the LL/agnt will not grant you a tenancy without, then buy your own, online, to show them. Then once you have the contract signed, cancel the insurance (14 day cancelation). Check if there is an admin charge fro cancelation and choose an insurer without, or with a small admin charge, rather than the cheapest policy!

Chris_P_2

Thank you. you've confirmed what i thought

Guest101

They can't force you to claim through it so its pointless

jamesbrownontheroad

Thanks for the useful contributions to this thread.

We are about to rent a property from Spicer Haart and the contract requires us to have tenants liability insurance. They are pushing insurance sold by a company called HomeLet, who have incidentally not stopped calling us daily (despite requests to desist) since we placed a deposit.

Could anyone recommend alternative providers of tenants liability insurance that we may follow G_M's guidance in post #2 above?

Guest101

Who cares, buy with them then cancel within 14 days

G_M

From Homelet's liability insurance policy document:

Cooling off period
You have the right to cancel your policy during the 14 day period either after the day of purchase of the contract, or the day on
which you receive your policy documentation – whichever is later.
Provided no claim has been made, you’ll be entitled to a full refund of the premium paid.

https://homelet.co.uk/assets/documents/Contents-Insurance-Incorporating-Tenancy-Liability-Policy-Wording.pdf

geog134

I thought I would put my two pence in here. Our tenancy agreement we are signing tomorrow says as part of that we have to have 'tenants liability insurance'. They make us sign a document that says we have declined homelets tenant liability and will arrange our own that covers the landlords fixtures and fittings. This is frustrating as we have a £885 bond but we going that on comparison websites if you read the policies for contents insurance lots of them include this anyway. We are paying £6.50 a month through AXA which includes tenants liability up to £20,000. Don't go with homelet the letting agents will get commission and with prices starting at £10 and £1.99 admin fee a month that's double the price of the ones through reputable companies like axa. Set aside an hour and go on a comparison website and read the policy documents of each policy, we saw co-op insurance also including it too. Hope this helps someone

DrMurph

HomeLet are leading this con to get people to pay for insurance they do not need. Your deposit and landlords home insurance is all that is required.

If your letting agent will not release the keys and you are forced to purchase the insurance then shop around.

HomeLet who are linked to the agents as a referencing agency, aggressively pursue tennants with prices more then double endsleigh.

In the end we held out and read the final contract carefully which stated insurance, quite rightly, is the landlords responsibilty.

I hope my rant helps others to avoid being ripped off by letting agents and HomeLet.

Get your own contents insurance from a provider you trust