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bathrooms having leak outlet channels routed through an outside wall.
16.2 Policy excesses: The RICS Code of Practice suggests that a landlord should pay a higher premium to
achieve a £Nil policy excess. That may be wise in the leasehold sector but in the ‘Build to Rent’ sector
the ‘gross’ to ‘net’ will be improved by a lower premium. In a ‘Build to Rent’ building as it is the landlord
who retains the duty to keep pipe work, conduits and services in good order and therefore has little
opportunity to recover any policy excess the risk of a higher policy excess diminishes as unless tenant
waste or neglect, e.g., leaving the bath to run over, occurs the maintenance is the landlord’s
responsibility and the opportunity to recover any excess is extremely limited. The focus instead should
be on tenant education, regular landlord inspections and inter-tenancy pipe checks and renewal of
critical seals.
16.3 Common parts contents Insurance: The landlord will insure the contents they provide in each unit.
Literature needs to advise tenants that they should take out their own contents insurance to cover their
personal possessions and public liability for their own demise. With critical mass negotiating and
packaging a policy for tenants is a selling point.
16.4 Alternative accommodation & Loss of Rent: A good policy will automatically cover alternative
accommodation and loss of rent, our recommendation is to insure for Loss of rent as one does on a
commercial policy, i.e., to provide a figure for the actual amount that the units are being rented for
rather than just taking a percentage of the sum insured. Where blocks are physically separate there
could be an argument for covering the equivalent of one fully occupied separate core.
16.5 Impact of the CAPEX or the 10 year plan on insurance: The fact that as part of insurance negotiations
you can submit a CAPEX plan, plant asset register and lifespan guide and demonstrate that you are
putting aside relevant funding levels will give the insurers the confidence they seek.
16.6 Community events insurance: Community events require specialist Public Liability cover. To properly
assess risk the insurers will need to be provided with an events operation manual and event risk
assessment for each. Ringley have these pre-prepared for all key events in their events calendar.
16.7 Tenancy length & Insurance: Insurers prefer rentals for 6 months plus to short term rentals, some
insurers will not cover Airbnb for instance and insurers will be looking for any percentage of short term
rentals to be no more than 10% of the total units offered. Above this, insurers will either look to load
the excess for these types of rental or the premium. What is important is to demonstrate:
(a) Control of the type of person’s renting the properties,
(b) Tenant(s) are shown how their property works,
(c) Management strategies to minimise claims.
a) Control of the type of person(s) renting the properties,
By centralising the ‘lease up strategy’ whether a property is let through Ringley as operator direct, local
agents we offer a streamlined process from offer to deal to contract. This process ensures smart data
capture making it easy for us to report to you trends such as:
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