Why buy insurance for letting agents?
You strive to harmoniously bring a landlord and tenant together in a property ideal that suits them both. The issue is that often it’s not that straightforward and you may get caught in a legal dispute.
During such a situation your professional conduct will come under scrutiny as each party is looking to blame someone else for either loss of earnings or extra costs. As much as you can be confident that you provided the right instructions and carried out all the right steps, there is always a chance that one of the parties will pursue a claim against you to recover their losses.
How does liability insurance for letting agents help?
You strive to harmoniously bring a landlord and tenant together in a property ideal that suits them both. The issue is that often it’s not that straightforward and you may get caught in a legal dispute.
Unless you are prepared to pay the injured party to make the claim go away, you may need some legal help. Without insurance for letting agents you’ll have to pay for the legal costs yourself and possibly damages. On the other hand if you’ve had the foresight to buy the right legal covers, your insurers and the specifically designed legal process will assist you with defending your position.
Professional indemnity insurance for letting agents
This cover pays for a legal expert to represent you, aids in redress, and compensates your client in the event your actions are deemed to be the cause of the claimant’s financial losses.
Professional indemnity insurance for letting agents is designed to protect your business from legal disputes brought against your by your customers. They could be either the landlord or the tenant. You have professional obligations to both.
Plus professional indemnity insurance for letting agents is a regulatory requirement and if you’re a member of a redress scheme, you are most likely required to have this cover.
Public liability for letting agents
If you operate in a reasonably traditional way, i.e. hold your landlords keys in order to show prospective tenants around, you’d be wise to consider public liability insurance.
It is also a legal cover but specifically designed to protect you from accusations of causing property damage or an injury. Both do happen in the letting agency world and for the sake of saving a few pounds a month, it’s not worth leaving your business exposed on this front.
Business legal protection insurance
You might think why you should also need this cover if you already have professional indemnity and public liability.
The answer is that they are defence covers. In other words you can’t use those covers to bring a claim against a third party. Nor can you deal with a contract dispute, recover unpaid invoices or get assistance if you’re investigated by HMRC .
That is what Business legal protection insurance is for and can help with when you have reasonable chances of succeeding. You can either use this cover to defend yourself or bring a claim against a third party.
Employers’ liability insurance for letting agents
If you have employees then you’re likely to need this cover. It’s required by law and you could be facing a fine if you don’t comply.
