When thinking about landlord insurance (NI), there are many cases where the laws, regulations and services offered to the residents of Northern Ireland differ slightly from the UK mainland. And one of those is insurance- some insurers don’t offer home cover for properties in Northern Ireland.
Emerald does – for your principle home, for unoccupied properties and, in this case, for buy-to-let properties or other cases where you are the landlord.
What Does Our Landlord Insurance Cover?
Let’s start with the basics. We offer the same cover for landlords throughout the UK with our landlord insurance – NI is no exception either for the terms of the policy or the pricing.
So what do you need as a landlord? If you own the freehold of a property you will definitely need buildings cover as a landlord (Emerald does not offer standalone contents cover for landlords). You will need to give us the details of the property as well as the estimated rebuild costs.
Insurers can help with a rough estimate of rebuild costs for your property, but it will be your responsibility to give the final figure as you know the property better than us. You may find the rebuild value in a recent survey or mortgage report, or you can look at the handy calculator from the Association of British Insurers here.
You may also need cover for the contents that you leave in the property when it’s rented out. Even an unfurnished property may have white goods, cabinets etc so it’s worth looking. You will also need to estimate the costs of the contents, but they do cost something, even if you have only the bare minimum in there. Emerald gives a base cover of £5000 of contents cover for free, so make sure that there’s always a little something there should you need to claim.
Emerald can cover many different types of tenant, including students, tenants on benefits and asylum seekers, but the cost of your landlord policy will depend on the differing risks there are from each various class of tenant and there may be extra endorsements or increased excesses. These vary from insurer to insurer so it’s worth checking if you have tenants who do not fall into the category of ‘professional/employed’. You can see more about Emerald’s landlord insurance (NI) on our landlord insurance page.
What coverage is there should I need to make a claim?
So firstly we hope you don’t have to make a claim under any landlord insurance – NI has the same issues has other territories of the UK; check your tenants, get references and guarantees etc.
Under an Emerald landlord policy you get cover for the things that you might expect – fire, explosion, vandalism, theft, storm etc. But under an Emerald landlord policy NI you can also get cover for accidental damage by your tenants, and also loss of rent if your tenants are unable to live in the property because of an insured event (eg fire).
Remember that there are some exceptions and qualifications to the cover. A major one is that like many insurers, Emerald’s landlord does not cover damage if the property is unoccupied for more than 30 days, then you should contact your insurer and change the policy to one for an unoccupied policy. Emerald can do that immediately and you can see more about our general unoccupied policies on our unoccupied property insurance page.
What does landlord insurance NI cost?
There are many factors in how insurers calculate the premium for landlord insurance – NI is treated in the same way. Your postcode is important, as well as the level of cover that you need. As mentioned above, the type of tenant will also have an effect on the premium, as will any previous claims.
In short, there are several factors and it’s best to choose a reputable insurer with strong backing. At Emerald, we don’t treat you differently for any reason, including the territory in which you live. You can get a quote online from our landlord insurance page or call us on 0330 113 7109 to speak to our experienced underwriting team
