Many providers out there claim to offer you the earth when it comes to insuring your properties – “we’ll match or better any rate” often gets branded about, this all sounds well and good until you take them up on your offer, get to the quotation stage and find out that because your property falls outside their “normal” requirements/criteria, this offer is not applicable to you, wasting your time and energy!
The frequent stumbling block found with these providers frequently campaigning for more enquiries is that they do not accommodate multi-tenanted properties; and with the bounties of rent available on HMO properties, they are becoming ever more popular. So as popularity rises there becomes a demand to get these properties covered.
Luckily we have been insuring these properties for many years, and have no troubles accommodating anything. We know the market well; so we don’t promise to price match, we tender our agencies and look to better terms you currently have.
For a stressed landlord searching for renewal quotations it may sound very interesting I’m sure, but the multi-tenancy could just be your first hurdle; we’ve established that we place HMO properties, but what about the tenants inside the property? We have agencies that actively look to take on not only working tenants, but also DSS, Students, Asylum Seekers, rehabilitation clients and more.
Still not convinced? Okay, how about a case study: we received a portfolio enquiry from a landlord with 31 properties insuring both buildings and contents on all properties with a combined total insurable figure of £4,575,297.
The portfolio was mainly comprised of Student lets; but a few of the properties were “company let”, which in this instance meant that the properties were let to a company that provided temporary accommodation to DSS tenants, and the tenancy agreement was between the company and the tenant, not the landlord. So already not the most attractive proposition to many providers…
In addition to the above, one of the properties had a recent, but small, subsidence claim, again swaying various providers decisions towards “DECLINE” but as I said, we’ve been doing this for many years, we’ve established solid relationships with insurers who are keen to underwrite HMO properties – this client’s renewal premium was around the £8000, he had sourced cheaper terms, but we came out trumps, with a premium around £4400 and also included subsidence cover for the recently troubled property.
