9 Crown Row, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 0TH
![](https://www.duncanyeardley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/arrow.png)
Marketing & Operations Manager
Helen is Nick’s sister and she successfully set up and established our Lettings Department back in 2013. Having spent much of her career prior to DY working in marketing, Helen now heads up our Marketing & Operations department. This suits her organisational skills, creativity and keen eye for detail perfectly! She loves taking long walks with her Labrador Finn and when time permits, travelling and visiting new places around the globe.
Top of my bucket list is…
To keep travelling, visiting more new countries and ultimately, one day explore Europe in a (very comfortable!) camper van.
My guilty pleasure…
Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. Probably best just not to buy it!
When I was younger, I wanted to be…
Less shy/more confident. Still working on it…
If I were a superhero, my superpower would be…
To help find a cure for cancer and dementia. Here’s hoping.
On Sunday morning, you can usually find me…
Up bright and early for a long dog walk in the country.
You might be surprised to know that…
One of my earliest qualifications as a teenager was as a Clarks trained shoe fitter. Ohh, all those back to school shoes!
8 Aug 2017
Insuring your home is probably a ‘no-brainer’. Certainly, if you have a loan secured on it you’ll have no choice. Your lender will insist. The same goes for a property that you buy for investment purposes although the policy will be specific for the purpose and might cover a wider range of risks.
Here is a short list (but growing all the time) of risks against which you can now insure. They include;
This is fairly straightforward and, as the name suggests, this sort of policy covers the Landlord of a Buy to Let property for damage to the property caused by fire, accidental damage and, probably malicious damage. This is a basic risk against which you should insure. After all, the losses involved could be catastrophic.
If the property is unfurnished, then the tenant might want to take their own ‘contents’ insurance. Alternatively, if the Landlord supplies white goods or furnishings, he may wish to cover these through a contents policy.
The Rent Guarentee Insurance policy covers against the risk a Landlord faces in the event that a tenant fails to pay their rent. Generally, this will be a separate policy to your building and contents insurance as it is a more specialist risk – but not always.
Most RGI insurance policies come with legal fee insurance but you may have to pay extra for the additional cover. As legal fees can be substantial, it might be worth considering this option.
As the people that own buy to let property have become more likely to be small landlords or ‘accidental’ landlords, rather than professional corporations, the appeal of fixing costs associated with owning property has become greater.
Public liability cover (PL) typically comes included with most property insurance policies, however, it’s always best to confirm this at the outset.
With the UK becoming more litigious taking insurance to cover you against the risk of a third party injuring themselves on your property is prudent, especially when the property is occupied by a tenant over which you have little control.
As with all insurance, the premium, excess and general terms must all be considered in the round before you can best establish what represents good value for money. However, considering insuring against risk is always going to be sensible, especially when cashflow is tight and the consequences of a large loss are likely to be financially catastrophic.
Related articles:
Get in touch