UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

New wanabee landlord here trying to get my head around a problem.

I have a leasehold flat in a house in which I also have a share of the freehold, and in the house there are only the two flats. I have been offered work abroad which is going to mean me being away for about six months and I had this bright idea of renting out my flat while I was away to generate some extra income.

So I do all the necessary things, contact the council, find nice tenants, gas and electric certificates, check my lease, then I read my building insurance and it says they need to be notified if I want to rent any part of the property.

I should point out that the building insurance is a policy that covers the whole house and I split the cost with the other flat.

So I call them up and they say "we don't insure rented property, you need landlords insurance", so I phone a few brokers and they say "you cant have landlords insurance because the other property is owner occupied"

So now I am a bit stuck, I have not done this before, but I cant believe this situation has not happened before so I thought I would post on here and see if anyone else has been in this situation and come up with a solution.

Thanks very much for reading about my problem, and I would be hugely grateful for any suggestions.

Cheers
JH

I have some studios in a block that is mainly rentals,but some owner occupied.We have block insurance that covers all,with the option of additional cover for landlords.The underwriter is Aviva.I would try a few more brokers,this can't be such an unusual situation.