If you are a landlord, be it of a commercial or residential property, chances are that at some point you will need to make a claim on your insurance.
You know that it’s important to have insurance, and most reputable landlords will take out a policy, however when it comes to making a claim, do you know what your policy actually covers you for?
At Action Insurance Repair (AIR), our team specialises in assisting landlords with their insurance claims, helping them save time and money in the process. Having worked with over 250 landlords, we know that most people don’t study all of the terms and conditions of their insurance policy, so to make things easier we’ve highlighted the key things to consider when making a claim.
- Know your policy
The standard insured perils are fire, lightning, explosion, storm, escape of water/oil, subsidence, theft and malicious damage.
You will need to establish what the actual cause of damage is, in order to determine if there is cover under one of the perils on your policy. Once established, you need to take action to fix it as soon as possible. This, however, may not be as straight forward as it sounds.
You may need to appoint a structural engineer to report on potential subsidence, a water detection company with specialist equipment to trace a leak or a roofing company to undertake emergency repairs to your roof.
Ultimately, the responsibility lies with you as the landlord and policyholder to mitigate your loss/claim and avoid further damage from occurring through lack of action to remedy the cause.
- Understand how the process works – Landlord Vs Insurance Company
Making a claim isn’t necessarily as easy as you might expect. What you need to remember is that you are claiming against your insurance company, therefore they aren’t going to make the claim for you!
In most circumstances, your insurance company will appoint a representative to visit the property and assess the viability of your claim. This person may offer you some advice or answer your queries, but, ultimately, they are working for the insurance company. Since their fees are paid for by the insurance company, their focus is to assess your insurance company’s liability and the costs that you are claiming for. Their interests naturally favour the insurance company, and this is often demonstrated when it comes to the solution proposed.
Additionally, many insurance companies put the onus on the landlord to source competitive quotes and present their claim to the insurance company for review, which can be incredibly time – consuming and laborious. This is why a landlord needs professional help and someone on their side.
- Get a professional team to do the work for you
While many insurance companies will support you in the initial stage of your claim, their only responsibility is to ensure costs are covered to restore your property. Once that’s done, you will be left with the most stressful and time-consuming elements to organise and oversee alone, as well as a potential financial outlay. This is where seeking professional help is key.
A lot of landlords are unsure about whether or not they can / should use their own contractor to carry out the insurance claim repairs, and the short answer is – the choice is yours. You might feel more comfortable picking a contractor you know and trust, as this way you know you’re fully in control and they won’t cut any corners. To find out more about the pros and cons of picking your own contractor, you can read our blog here
If, for example, you are a landlord who doesn’t live close to the property in question, you might think this would make it impossible to pick your own contractor as you won’t be able to be at the property to inspect the work – that’s where Action Insurance Repair comes in!
At AIR we work with a team of insurance experts ranging from loss assessors, surveyors, water detection companies and drying specialists and, to top it all, when you appoint one of the approved suppliers from our extended team, there will be no upfront financial outlay.
Choose Action Insurance Repair (AIR)
AIR will recommend one of our panel of Loss Assessors to provide you with expert and individual management of the entire process. We work with a lot of landlords, and the most common concerns we get are:
- What will happen if the property is uninhabitable and the tenant needs to move out?
- Why can’t my letting agent deal with this for me?
- I haven’t got time / don’t know how to deal with all of this
As well as knowing that the repairs will be carried out by a team of reliable specialist contractors, ranging from flooring suppliers, furniture restorers to building trades – anything you could possibly need! – who will work under the direction of a Project Manager, when you pick Action Insurance Repair you:
- Don’t have to travel to the property to meet with your insurance company
- Don’t have to speak to your insurance company
- Don’t have to source quotes
- Don’t have to pay out any money upfront
- Don’t have to have the property restored like for like
- Don’t have to spend their time preparing your own claim to present to your insurance company
Starting with a visit to your home to discuss your needs and how we work to bring your claim and repairs to a successful conclusion, at AIR we’ve made it our commitment to ensure you receive exceptional customer service as standard. We don’t cut corners to save your insurance company money and line their shareholders’ pockets – you are our only priority and you can rest assured, knowing we have your interests in mind.