If you are on your own or renting a room in a house-share or flat-share you might think about covering your liability for accidental damage to your landlord’s property. Sometimes accidents happen, and your landlord may ask you to pay for associated repairs or costs when least expected. Depending on your tenancy agreement this cover could be mandatory so in this article we answer some of the most common questions about tenants’ contents and liability insurance.

Why do tenants need liability insurance?

Tenants’ liability insurance can provide you peace of mind if you accidentally cause damage to the furniture, fixture, and fittings provided by your landlord. This cover is especially relevant if the property you are renting is also furnished by your landlord. Renting a home with non-family members could boost the chance of damage, theft, or items going missing, simply because a number of different people living in a property may be treated as high risk, and this means it is likely your premium could cost more!

What does tenants contents insurance cover?

Standard home contents cover usually provides cover against natural causes such as fire, storm, or flood. Intasure Tenants’ Liability & Optional Contents insurance can cover against theft, malicious damage, collision, electrical power surge or loss of domestic fuel and also metered water.

Other items (bicycles, laptops, tablets, smartphones, jewellery…) should be mentioned to your insurer when getting tenants’ content cover, to make sure these optional extras can be protected for their current value. When you stop to think about it, you might have a lot of stuff that could easily be lost, damaged or stolen. Some insurers will ask you to declare items over a certain limit, typically those that are of a higher value to replace and you should consider this when taking out insurance.

Under-insuring your contents could lead to you getting less than the value of your items if you need to make a claim.

Is tenants insurance compulsory in the UK?

No. Tenants insurance is not mandatory but there are some worthy reasons to get cover from a reputable insurer if you are living in a furnished flat. Landlords are responsible for the building and any fixtures inside it, and for contents as well if the rented property is furnished by them. However some landlords or letting agents might advise to take out tenants insurance as an alternative for not deducting any accidental damage done to the landlord’s home (e.g. spilling wine on the carpet) from your deposit, as well as protecting your personal belongings in the event that something were damaged.

Should I cancel my policy if I move?

Some insurance policies may not have flexibility to transfer the insurance cover to a new address. One of the benefits included in our Tenants’ Liability & Optional Contents cover insurance with Intasure* is the portability of the insurance policy. If you are moving to a different rented accommodation, you can transfer the policy to your new address.

If you need to make a change to your policy details we will not charge you any additional administration fees, you should however be aware that the premium charged by the insurer may alter. For example, if you want to increase the total sum, your contents cover varies, or if you move to a bigger or smaller property.

* For full terms and conditions see policy wording.

This article does not purport to be comprehensive or to give legal advice. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, Intasure cannot be held liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies contained within the document. Readers should not act upon (or refrain from acting upon) information in this document without first taking further specialist or professional advice.