According to the National Landlord’s Association (NLA), around 400,000 landlords have had tenants damage their property in the last year.
That’s around 29% of all UK landlords and, the NLA claims, around 120,000 landlords or 8% have had to make an insurance claim as a result.
This means that the average landlord is now spending around 5% of their rental property income on premiums for landlord insurance.
The survey also reveals that 49% of landlords have not spent any money on such insurance premiums and 46% say they spend up to 10% on premiums.
Around 4% of landlords are spending more than 10% of their rental income on premiums.
Insurance premium tax for landlords is rising
The survey follows the announcement in the recent budget when the Chancellor revealed that insurance premium tax is rising from 6% to 9.5%.
This new increase should generate around £1.75 billion for the government.
Carolyn Uphill, the NLA’s chairman, is urging landlords to insure against the unexpected and to cover all possible eventualities.
She added: “We hear from landlords who suffer for failing to check their tenants properly before granting a tenancy.
“It’s a hard way of finding out that a basic home insurance policy will not provide the cover a landlord needs.
“Damage to property can be a costly issue particularly if the damage is greater in value than the tenant’s deposit.”
Mrs Uphill said landlords should carry out the relevant tenant checks before letting a property and arrange for bespoke property insurance to avoid future headaches.
Nearly half of the UK’s tenants will never own home
Meanwhile, a survey has revealed that 44% of UK renters believe they will never get to own their own property with many saying they cannot afford to save for the deposit.
The research by construction firm Keepmoat reveals that just 2% of tenants have plans to buy a property this year.
Tenants in Liverpool have the largest proportion of those saying they cannot afford to buy a property, at 62%, with Glasgow and Newcastle tenants, both on 60%, also saying it would be difficult.
In London, 41% of tenants said they could not afford to buy.
The research also questioned homeowners and 38% of those revealed that it took them between two and five years to save up for a deposit to buy a house.
Another 13% said it took them 10 years to save up a deposit.
