Landlord insurance is designed to help protect your investment property. As well as providing cover for damage caused by defined events such as fire, storms and flooding, it may also provide cover for accidental or malicious damage caused by tenants and loss of rent due to tenants not paying or because the property has been left in an uninhabitable state.
Perhaps the biggest difference between building insurance and landlord insurance is the option of covering for loss of rent, either because the tenant has defaulted on paying their rent or because the tenant has left the property in an uninhabitable condition. However, this varies depending on the policy, so should you require this feature, make sure you read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to make sure you’ve got the correct level of cover. Your landlord policy may also cover loss of rent if the property is unliveable due to a defined event such as storm or fire.
If your investment property is a unit or townhouse, it is likely to be part of a strata plan. If this is the case, you’ll likely be covered for the public areas of your building as part of the strata insurance policy. It’s important you check with the Body Corporate to find out exactly what the building’s strata insurance provides cover for, so you’ll be able to make an informed decision about what level of landlord insurance you’ll need.
As always before deciding on any insurance policy, it’s important to read the Product Disclosure Statement thoroughly so you know exactly what you’ve covered for – and just as important – what you’re not covered for.
1 Please read the disclosure documents for your selected product or service, including the Terms and Conditions or Product Disclosure Statement, before deciding.
The information contained in this article is general information only and is not specific to any product.
It does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs and so you should consider its appropriateness, having regard to your personal objectives, financial situation and needs having regard to these factors before acting on it. Terms, conditions and exclusions to apply to any insurance product.