An insurer says only seven per cent of private tenants bother to get contents insurance.
GoCompare says approximately one in five UK households currently live in private rented accommodation in the UK– that’s 4.5m households – yet only 315,000 of those take out contents cover.
That contrasts with the owner occupied sector - some 56 per cent of the proportion of GoCompare customers who requested a contents insurance quote were mortgaged homeowners, while 36 per cent of homeowners requiring a quote had already paid off their mortgage.
Company spokesperson Ryan Fulthorpe says: “We know that the private rental market is growing quickly, and more people are choosing to rent rather than buy homes due to the current surge in house prices, but this data is concerning.
“A lot of those in private rental accommodation are leaving themselves open to being majorly out of pocket should they be burgled or have an accident with one of their high value items. Landlords take out insurance to cover the contents of a property, but not a tenant’s property, that is their responsibility.”
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
I took out £10k worth of contents cover on a 1 bed flat, for £1.66pm with 2 months free, via Halifax.
It’s fine - when your house burns down and you lose everything you put a sob story out there and crowd funding raises you enough to replace everything you lost!
Not the sort of crowd funding that I would donate to, if people don't have insurance cover that is their problem.
I have never paid for contents insurance, even in my own homes and always opt for big excesses to reduce premiums.
I reckon I am up over £30k over the last 40 years in saving premium costs.
That's a risk that you are happy to take, should the worst happen no doubt you would take it on the chin and would not expect others to crowd fund like so many do.
Andrew
Exactly. I haven't squandered the £30k and could afford to replace the entire contents of any property if necessary, which wouldn't cost anything like £30k.
Tenants won't pay if they don't have to - look how they've been taking advantage of the covid situation - but landlords need to cover their a*ses and make sure it's clear to tenants that contents aren't covered.
I tell my tenants that it's their choice to take out contents insurance but if anything happens then I'm not covered under the buildings insurance policy so they'll need to pay out of their own pockets to replace what they lose - and it's written into the contract they sign as well. I also tell them not to ask me to help out if anything happens as they made their choice and they have to live with the consequences.
Thankfully, so far, none of my tenants over the last 20ish years have needed to make any claims!
I don’t Insure Tenants contents because of the fact all the Insurance Co’s that I have dealt with over the years wouldn’t Insure other people’s Contents it’s as simple as that, and if you had such Insurance the sky would be the limit as to how many claims there would be. I have had them try to Claim off LL’s Insurance away back. Alleged break-in it was laughable, it was double glazed but only outside glass broken.
That's blatant insurance fraud and they deserved to be jailed.
Fraudulent claims put up insurance premiums for everyone else.
Please login to comment