Latest Insurance News
Buy to let insurance: Poor inventories losing landlords £12m a year
06 Jul 2010
Posted by Jonathan Walker
Badly-prepared inventories are costing Britain's buy to let property insurance policyholders £12 million a year in lost claims, according to the industry.
PropertyWire has reported that a lack of prepared evidence is working against a high proportion of landlords who find themselves in disputes over tenants' deposits.
Since the introduction of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme in 2007, the onus has been on buy to let insurance policyholders to prove their case for keeping some or all of a tenant's deposit.
As a result of improperly-prepared inventories, however, landlords now have less than a one in ten chance of winning a dispute, the Video Inventory Agency has claimed.
Frazer Fearnhead, founder of the group, told the news provider: "When it comes to inventories, landlords have traditionally got away with the bare minimum. In my time I have seen inventories that have been scribbled on the back of an envelope."
He warned, however, that buy to let insurance policyholders now need to take a more professional and comprehensive approach to protect themselves from loss.
