Landlord insurance — where to compare cover

Your home policy almost certainly will not cover a let

A standard residential buildings and contents policy is written on the basis that the owner lives there. Let the property and most insurers treat the policy as void — not reduced, void — so a claim after a fire or a flood is refused outright. Telling your insurer you are letting is not optional, and it is the single most common gap we see.

What a landlord policy usually adds

Property owners' liability — a tenant or visitor injured at the property. Usually the reason a mortgage lender insists on cover at all.
Buildings cover written for a tenanted property, including malicious damage by tenants on some policies.
Loss of rent if the property becomes uninhabitable after an insured event.
Contents you own — the furniture in a furnished let, not the tenant's belongings, which are theirs to insure.
Unoccupied cover, which matters between tenancies. Most policies restrict cover after 30 or 45 days empty.

Things that change the price, and the ones people forget

Tenant type, whether the property is an HMO, whether it is a listed building, and the length of any void period. An HMO is a different underwriting question from a single family let, and a policy bought on the wrong basis can be as useless as no policy. Declare it properly.

Insurance is not a substitute for the safety duties

An insurer can decline a claim where a gas or electrical safety duty was unmet. The certificates are not paperwork for its own sake — they are part of what keeps the cover live.