Buy-to-Let properties have boomed over recent years, with many people choosing to invest in a ‘bricks and mortar’ route to wealth or a pension. However, since the banking crisis, buy-to-let investors now face tougher conditions such as a weakening housing market, tough new legislation and the tightening of affordability checks by wary lenders.

From October 1^st 2017, buy-to-let investors with more than 4 properties may find it harder to raise finances as their entire property portfolio will be scrutinised for viability, rather than just the property requiring finance as part of tough new lending regulations being introduced.

Landlord responsibilities

As a landlord your responsibilities include:

• Checking that your tenant has a right to rent
• Protecting your tenant’s deposit in a Government-approved scheme
• Carrying out and provide an EPC certificate for the property
• Making sure all gas and electrical equipment is installed correctly, maintained and tested annually
• Fitting and testing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
• Following fire safety regulations where the property is either purpose-built flats or flat conversions

Failure to put all the relevant checks and balances in place may cause violation of Health & Safety regulations and invalidate your buildings or contents insurance.

Landlord insurance

As a landlord, standard home insurance may not provide sufficient cover and that’s where specialist landlord insurance comes in. Landlords insurance will typically cover the building against fire, flooding and subsidence and most of the risks associated with owning a property but if you have specific concerns or requirements it’s worth contacting a specialist insurance broker rather than relying on comparison websites to make sure you’re not signing up to something which doesn’t adequately cover your needs.

If you rent your property furnished, you may also want to include contents insurance – perhaps with cover for accidental or even malicious damage or theft by tenants – so there are no nasty or expensive surprises along the way.

Get specialist advice

Whether you’re an experienced landlord, or new to the market, it is worth consulting the experts to check standard cover (as not all companies are the same) and discuss extras such as Rent Guarantee and Home Emergency cover which might offer you some extra peace of mind.

The bestofFleet and Farnborough member, Starlane Insurance are specialist insurance brokers with bags of experience in landlord and buy-to-let insurance as Managing Director, Steve French has been renting property both home and abroad for over 20 years. To find out more about specialist landlord insurance, get in touch with Starlane Insurance.

For more information on the changes to the regulations read this article from The Daily Telegraph.

For the Government’s guidance on renting property visit the .gov.uk website here.