The National Residential Landlords Association represents private landlords across the UK, and their own claims data points to one cause far more than any other. Here's what it means for how you should insure a rental property.
Standard home insurance is built for owner-occupiers. The moment you let a property to a tenant, that policy typically becomes invalid, most standard home insurers exclude tenanted property entirely, whether you realise it or not. Landlord insurance exists specifically to close that gap.
The NRLA's own claims data: "Escape of water is consistently the most common reason why landlords make an insurance claim across the UK... over a third of all claims paid out by Total Landlord are for escape of water." Around three-quarters of those are down to a burst pipe.
A burst pipe sounds minor until you see the numbers. The ABI reports the average cost of repairs caused by a burst pipe during freezing weather is £8,800. That's not a one-off, it's a genuinely common claim, and it's exactly the kind of cost standard home insurance won't touch on a rented property.
A properly built landlord policy accommodates housing benefit tenants, students, houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), and working tenants without a difference in cover or price. If a quote treats certain tenant types as higher risk by default rather than assessing the actual property and circumstances, it's worth checking that against the wider market.
Basic landlord policies typically cover structural damage from fire, flood, and storm, but not accidental or malicious damage caused by tenants themselves, a spilled bath, a foot through a ceiling, deliberate damage on move-out. This tends to sit in a higher tier of cover, worth checking explicitly rather than assuming it's included as standard.
Whether you're renting out one flat or managing a multi-property portfolio, the exposure is the same in kind, just different in scale. Portfolio landlords can usually consolidate multiple properties under one policy with a single renewal date, rather than juggling separate policies with separate renewal dates for each property.
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See My Cover Options →This article references publicly available guidance and claims data from the National Residential Landlords Association for context. CoverMatch is not affiliated with, and this article is not endorsed by, the NRLA. Cover levels vary by insurer and property type.