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Home > Home Insurance > Renting Out Your Property - The Nightmare Stories Renting Out Your Property - The Nightmare StoriesAuthor: Neil L Roberts WHEN you rent out a property you have to be prepared for all sorts of tenants and what they may do to your property. The benefits of being a landlord are potentially capital gains in property value along with regular rental income when the property is let. The downfalls however can be the stuff of nightmares.One landlord with a flat in Bournemouth was concerned when rent payments stopped being made and he couldn't contact the tenants. After a couple of weeks he visited the property to try and make direct contact and was surprised to find it vacant with the door open. The tenants had taken all the skirting boards, doors and anything flammable and used it to light a fire to keep themselves warm. That landlord did not have comprehensive landlords insurance in place but after he paid out the thousands of pounds to get it fixed, he made sure he did for the next tenants - with excellent protection against rent loss and malicious damage cover. Another landlord in Telford, not using an agent, started to suffer from missed payments from his tenants. After two months of trying, he set a time and date to meet the tenants at the property and duly arrived ready to discuss any problems and sort a resolution. The tenants did not answer when he knocked on the door, instead a gang of thugs appeared and told him never to return again or they would hurt him and his family. A long and stressful eviction process then ensued and cost him thousands in lost rent and legal expenses. If he had comprehensive insurance with legal expenses cover and loss of rent insurance then he would have avoided the financial heartache, if not the stress involved. Another landlord in Belfast was struggling to get a tenant into his property when his let property buildings insurance came up for renewal. He decided instead of putting his mid-terrace property on cover to wait until he got a tenant and income to cover the expense. As luck would have it, a month later he agreed terms with a tenant but unfortunately the property suffered an electrical fire before they moved in - and before he had landlord buildings insurance. Luck was with him, the fire was extinguished and only damaged a top floor bedroom and the roof without harming any of the joining properties and it cost approximately £20,000 to fix - a bargain compared to the cost if it had burnt down the row of terraces. He now has his properties insured at all times. Another landlord had rented a property in Boston to DSS tenants for more than a year when he started to suffer from missed payments. It turned out that the tenants had decided they had better uses for their rent money when it was given into their control by the local authority earlier this year. They had the best clothes, mobile phones and even Sky television at the property but were not paying the rent. No amount of reasonable discussion or remonstrating would change their minds - promises were made and broken. Another lengthy eviction process took place with all its loss of rent and legal costs. With proper Landlords DSS insurance you can protect yourself against much of this risk, along with legal expenses cover and rent guarantee. The last nightmare story really is just that. Unwilling to sell his single let property due to the recession and a real threat of negative equity, an investor in Leeds was landed with a non-paying tenant who took months to evict and in the meantime treated the entire property like a toilet - literally. The walls were covered in excrement, the carpets thick with human waste and virtually no surface was untouched. He lost rent for the months unpaid, paid the legal fees and was left with a property needing complete renovation when he eventually regained control of it. Unfortunately for him, the recession bit twice and he lost his job at this time and without the cash available to renovate the property had to sell it in its left by the tenant condition at much less than market value and well under his purchase price. The loss he made on the property was covered by his savings but that left him with no cash and without a new job, six months later he was undergoing eviction from his own mortgaged home to complete the story. Again, fully comprehensive landlords insurance with rent guarantee, legal expenses cover and malicious damage cover would have helped to save him tens of thousands of pounds - and possibly his own home. All of these cases are nightmare scenarios for any landlord but all can be insured against and that is exactly what the responsible buy-to-let property owner will do. Of course, to operate a profitable let property more than just insurance is required - a large dose of common sense and business acumen will help - but at the very least rental property insurance will provide a safety net if absolutely required and help to keep the plan of regular monthly income and long term gain on course for let property owners. The author owns several let properties and fortunately has not had any rental nightmares himself. He is also a consultant to let property insurance specialist CIA Insurance which guarantees to beat any quote for landlords insurance - visit http://www.cia-landlords-insurance.co.uk for more details. Other Recent Insurance Smart Book Articles:
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