Hi All,
Monday rolls around again, tick tock, tick tock. Not every ones favourite day as if you are anything like me it should be designated as a compulsory duvet day for the UK.
For those of you keeping track of my blog I thought I should tell you that my friend Susan who is making me green with envy with her travelling exploits has recently visited The Alamo. Now perhaps I am getting way top into this whole landlord/landlady business but when I see a property like this now I think of the rental per calendar month straight away. As this is written for new landlords who, like me are making their first steps into the buy to let industry, rent per calendar month is normally abbreviated to Rent PCM.
Enough of the green eyed monster for now, with a bit of luck, I might make enough out of my mini buy to let business to follow in her footsteps. In time honoured fashion I will recap the content of the last blogs. If you need to find information or learn from my experiences as a fledgling landlord you can quickly view the section that you find of interest.
My first blog gave you a quick overview as to why I was doing this in the first place and I covered my personal experiences with regard to sourcing a letting agent and also how I have managed my own home under my own steam. I wrote about the importance of rent guarantee and hopefully entertained as well as informed a few people. Quick Link below to rent guarantee information, how it works and what it does:
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625
In my second blog I discussed the subject of legal cover for landlords and my take on the do's and dont's of the whole subject. I also gave out some links to some really good information that you can read so you can get the information straight from buy to let professionals. For those of you that don't have time between cappuccinos then here are the links again for you:
Eviction Services (the last resort but unfortunately evictions seem to be on the up)
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623
General legal Advice for Landlords
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=637
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=660
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=635
The third blog I posted up (yes blogging as I have come to understand it is addictive) was all about Buildings insurance for landlords. This was a fairly important one as there are many key differences between normal household buildings insurance and the specialised buildings insurance cover you need for buy to let properties as a landlord/landlady. I would recommend reading all the blogs if you are starting out as a landlord/landlady and you will see from my third blog that there a surprises in store if you don't take the time out to investigate and understand what you are getting into. Here's a quick link for you to some information on buildings insurance for landlords:
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621
Right, so we have got all that behind us now and I hope that the first three instalments of my blog have helped a landlord or landlady steer themselves through dangerous waters without many dramas. Now then on to Contents insurance.
Now once again it is important to note that there are major differences between standard insurance that a normal person residing in a home they have mortgaged or bought and insurance needed by a buy to let landlord. I would also urge you to look at the issue of contents insurance for tenants. I will cover a scenario a bit later in the blog that happened to my tenants and it sheds some light on why I will be including a "tenant" related subject here.
Firs things first though lets get on with what the landlord needs to be aware of. If you have taken the time out to read my landlords building insurance blog you will have read how I almost found myself without any cover at all. Not good, and to be honest due to the worry it caused fairly stressful. Luckily for me I had LetSafe on board who were always willing to help and give me some solid advice. http://www.letsafe.net/ check them out for some great free advice on their website and some of the most competitive products and services for landlords I could find.
Most of you will know the nightmares I had with LetSafe's competitors and the sigh of relief I breathed after finding LetSafe so helpful and informative.
In addition to the comprehensive back up I had from LetSafe I also had the letting agent I had appointed to Susan's house who were good at giving me pointers (as long as I was discussing Susan's house). Now tricky little devil that I am sometimes I would be discussing Susan's house but in reality was fact finding for mine.
When I got my Landlords Building insurance from LetSafe I had contents cover included. See this link:
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621
I checked with LetSafe and you need to take out their landlords insurance to get the contents insurance element of the cover. I was OK for cover now as far as my white goods and my property were concerned, but something happened that was a real eye opener and this forms the meat of this blog.
On Friday my tenants were at home doing there usual thing relaxing and enjoying the property. I left it semi furnished so they had decided to buy themselves a nice plasma TV. They asked if they could fix it to the wall with a bracket which I said no to ( didn't like the thought of having to do DIY work after their tenancy). They weren't put off by this and they were completely fine with it and they bought a nice glass stand to go along with it. Now as I said before I am often visiting for a cup of tea and biscuits and we get on very well. Some of you might think this a bit to close but for me it is nice to know that they have an emotional barrier to ripping me off or doing damage to the home if they need to go.
I went to visit and saw their new TV which was nice and it looked good in the front room. I finished my tea and after a brief chat to make sure they were happy with everything I left. The evening rolled by my boyfriend treated me to a Chinese and we settled down to watch a bit of TV ourselves. Twenty minutes into Eastenders and the phone rang. I had one of my tenants on the phone, voice shaky and out of breath. I asked what had happened as they seemed very agitated. He explained to me that as they were watching a DVD they heard a loud bang at the front door. They were sitting with lights off and curtains drawn to enjoy the plasma experience fully. I was then told that the bang repeated and the man of the house went to investigate. As he approached the door he could see the outline of someone hitting something against the door.
Now normally they have their car parked in the driveway but it was in for some repairs and the house looked unoccupied to the casual observer. My tenant rang the police straight away and ran upstairs to put the external flood light on so he could get a view of the person. This done the would be burglar looked up and then ran off. The police turned up, took details and we hope they manage to find the culprit, they cut them selves trying to break in so they have blood samples and will run it against their DNA database.
My tenants were of course shaken up as most people would be. After the excitement and adrenaline calmed down I asked them if they had the TV insured. The man of the house said he had insurance. At this point I thought that's fine and while worried about them and my property I returned to the sofa and my boyfriend who was by now also worried.
Saturday dawned and I went over to see them. After a few minutes the conversation turned to what they would do if they did get burgled. They explained the had insurance which they had kept going for their contents since moving out of their last home. I asked them if there was any difference to normal contents insurance as they were tenants. They didn't know but after Friday's ordeal they were going to find out.
BINGO !!!! I received a call about 5pm Saturday asking me if I knew where they could obtain Tenants Insurance from. I didn't but I looked into it and found this on http://www.letsafe.net/
http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=632
As you will see if you visit the page once again like landlords buildings and contents insurance normal contents cover doesn't cut it, you need a specific Tenants policy if you are renting a property. Now I called them back and told them about this and they said they were going to contact LetSafe and take it from their. I got a call back after a couple of hours and they had looked over the Internet and had settled on LetSafe.
I had a little smile on my face as not only had I helped them but they also said they had called a few of LetSafe's competitors and had found the service poor. Nice to know things are consistent with LetSafe.
So there ends the blog on contents insurance and why it is so important for landlords to advise their tenants on the differences between standard contents insurance and contents insurance for tenants.
Ill catch up with you all soon for the next instalment where I will be covering the subject of tenant referencing.
If you want the information from the horses mouth visit them here:
http://www.letsafe.net/
Bye for now, Tasha
