letcare offer a comprehensive package of insurances for both the private landlord and the professional investor that are specifically designed to cover most of the risks associated with letting property

Buildings Insurance

Contents Insurance

Tenant Referencing service - do you know your tenants?

Legal Expenses Insurance -for legal help when you need it most

Rent Guarantee Insurance - we pay your rent if your tenant doesn't

Home Care Safety Plan for help in an emergency

Home Care Safety Plan Plus - for help in an emergency plus annual gas safety, certification & central heating breakdown cover

Policy Excesses what we will not pay for

Important some of the terms & conditions that apply to this insurance

Policy Wording

Buildings

Buildings

Insurance cover for the rebuilding of or repairs to your property following loss or damage to the buildings caused by fire, explosion, lightning, earthquake, smoke, riot, civil commotion, labour or political disturbances, impact by vehicles, trains, animals, falling trees or aircraft, malicious acts or vandalism (including malicious acts or vandalism by tenants), storm, flood, escape of water or oil from tanks & pipes, frost, theft or attempted theft, subsidence, landslip or ground heave.
Plus loss of rent (following damage) up to 20% of the building sum insured.

Insurers will also pay up to £1,000,000 for your liability to tenants & other people for injury or damage to their property caused by defects in your Property

Contents insurance

We cover your contents on a new for old basis for loss or damage caused by fire, aircraft, malicious persons (or malicious damage by tenants), lightning, explosion, impact, theft (including theft by tenants), subsidence, heave, riot/civil commotion, storm, flood, escape of water or oil leakage, breakage of ceramic hobs, mirrors and glass in furniture, replacement of locks following theft of keys - plus loss of rent (following damage) up to 20% of the sum insured.

There is a minimum sum insured of £10,000 and a maximum of £30,000

Rent guarantee and Legal Expenses

You may be unable to collect your rent, your tenants may not vacate the property and you may need to evict unauthorised occupiers. All these problems can be resolved by legal action but this is expensive. We cover all of your legal expenses up to £10,000 and upto 6 months rent.

Claims will only be paid if your tenants have been satisfactorily referenced.

Home Care Service Plan

Quick & reliable help when you need it most - we understand the frustrations of not being able to find a plumber when you really need one but now reliable help is just a ‘phone call away – and not just for plumbers - electricians, locksmiths, builders & glaziers to!

Call us anytime - you or your tenant can call us anytime 24-hours a day 365 days a year.

Guaranteed Response Time - our contractors will respond within 30 minutes and visit the same day whenever possible

Our Home Care Service Plan is an emergency call out service for;

* Plumbing leaks
* Heating failure
* Burst Pipes
* Blocked Drains
* Security of Doors & Windows
* Failure of the Electricity supply
* Loss of the only available keys

We’ll save you time & make it easy for you to maintain your property - you can call our help line at anytime for access to our nationwide network of contractors who will carry out non-emergency maintenance and other works for you at specially discounted rates.

All work carried out by our contractors is guaranteed for 12 months

Home Care Service Plan PLUS

Quick & reliable help when you need it most - we understand the frustrations of not being able to find a plumber when you really need one but now reliable help is just a ‘phone call away – and not just for plumbers - electricians, locksmiths, builders & glaziers to!

Call us anytime - you can call us anytime 24-hours a day 365 days a year.

Guaranteed Response Time in the event of an emergency -our approved contractors will respond within 30 minutes and visit the same day whenever possible

We can help you prevent unexpected breakdowns of your central heating & hot water systems & avoid expensive repair bills - we’ll keep your central heating system, hot water supply and gas appliances in safe working order and help you comply with your legal responsibilities under the Gas Safety Regulations.

Our Home Care Service Plan plus is an emergency call out service for;

* Plumbing leaks
* Heating failure
* Burst Pipes
* Blocked Drains
* Security of Doors & Windows
* Failure of the Electricity supply
* Loss of the only available keys

Plus
Get an Annual Safety Certificate for your Gas appliances covered by the policy
* please allow 28 days from date of inception for a safety check to be carried out and certificate to be issued.

Policy Excess

Your policy will not pay for:

Buildings the first £100 of each claim (increased to £1000 for claims for subsidence, heave or landslip.
Contents the first £100 of each claim.

Legal Expenses any legal costs in pursuit of a claim for damage to property or loss of rent where the amount involved is less than £250

Rent Guarantee the first months unpaid rent

Home Care Service Plans Nil

Important

Tenancy Agreements

This insurance is designed for properties let on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (in England & Wales or the equivalent in Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man). Please ensure that any tenancy granted by you complies with this. If you are in any doubt, you should obtain advice form your local Citizens Advice Bureau (free of charge) or from a solicitor.

Tenants

We can insure properties let to working tenants, tenants receiving benefits, students, asylum seekers, local authorities, housing associations, letting agents or to a Company or used for holiday lets.

If you require quotes for any other types of let property please email your details to underwriting@letcare.co.uk, fax them to 0870 2113 412 or phone us on 0845 2000 792.

Commercial Lets

We can insure shops with flats above and totally commercial properties – please email your details to underwriting@letcare.co.uk, fax them to 0870 2113 412 or phone us on 0845 2000 792.

Unoccupied Properties

Properties can remain unoccupied between tenancies with no restrictions in cover. You do not need to notify us when the property becomes unoccupied. However, if your property becomes unoccupied during the months of October to April inclusive we do require you to turn off the water supply at the mains and drain the water system as soon as you become aware that the property is unoccupied.

Routine Maintenance

this insurance does not cover incidents arising from a lack of routine maintenance and servicing.

Tax

your insurance premiums are subject to Insurance Premium Tax but may be tax deductible

Tenant References

Legal Expenses & Rent Guarantee Claims will only be paid if your tenants have been satisfactorily referenced If you wish to make a claim.

Policy wording

this information is a summary of the policy cover. If you require full details a complete policy wording can be downloaded (see Documentation)

Tenant Referencing

Successful tenant selection is not about choosing the kind of tenant you would prefer – it’s about selecting the tenant who is most likely to respect your property, pay your rent on time & behave well towards their neighbours. It is also about being prepared to turn down tenants & leave your property vacant for a brief period if you are unable to get the right tenant.

Professional tenant referencing agencies have a great deal of experience and have ways of checking what is & what isn’t right. Quite often, just the prospect of having information professionally verified is sufficient to deter an undesirable tenant from applying to rent a property.
letcare offer landlords a comprehensive, 48 hour, tenant-referencing service with the following options:

FULL REFERENCE - our recommended referencing service for all individual tenants as every comprehensive report has the benefit of the following:

· CREDIT HISTORY CHECK;

· PREVIOUS MANAGING AGENT OR LANDLORDS REFERENCE;

· EMPLOYMENT (OR OTHER FINANCIAL) REFERENCE;

· OUR EXCLUSIVE TENANT DATABASE CHECK

A Full Reference costs £24.80

The best tenants can, unfortunately, run into financial difficulties, for example, if they are made redundant or become to ill to work or a relationship breaks down so, for a modest additional cost, you can add Rental Guarantee Insurance to pay the rent if an approved tenant doesn’t – see Rent Guarantee

CREDIT CHECK a basic credit check is a fast and effective way of checking out an individual tenant’s previous credit history, but should not be used on it’s own to assess their suitability as a tenant.

The credit history check will automatically check the applicant’s previous addresses, and will locate any credit agreement defaults, CCJ’s or bankruptcies found at any of the addresses located. The credit history search also checks to see if the applicant has ‘forgotten’ to provide us with any previous addresses.

A Credit Check costs £14.40

COMPANY REFERENCE to be used when a Tenancy agreement is being drawn up in a Company’s name and not an individual’s name.
A full analysis of balance sheet and profit and loss assessing the financial stability of the company is carried out on each reference. Details of Directors and Shareholders are also analysed giving an ‘all round’ opinion of the suitability of the company to discharge their rental liabilities.

A Company Reference costs £35.00

IF YOU WOULD LIKE letcare TO REFERENCE YOUR PROSPECTIVE TENANTS PLEASE COMPLETE ONE OF OUR REFERENCING APPLICATION FORMS (see Documents)