How to Protect Yourself

Our recommendations

At Belvoir, we understand that sometimes you may fall on hard times, such as illnesses, loss of income, injury or struggles with the cost of living. However, as an agent for the landlord, it is our job to collect rent for the landlord and to enforce the terms of the Tenancy Agreement. Therefore, we would strongly urge all tenants to consider how you can protect yourself against unforeseen circumstances. There are many insurances that can be taken out to cover your losses or your rent. Here are the top three ones we recommend. We are not insurance brokers or financial advisors, so we can introduce you to our trusted advisors who will consult with you for free to advise the best policy and the cheapest price they can get for you:

1. Tenants Contents Insurance

Your landlord will take out building insurance to protect the property against damage from fire, theft, flood etc. However, all your furniture and belongings will not be insured by the landlord. You should take out a Tenants Contents Insurance policy to cover your personal property within the home from damage from say fire, theft, flood etc.

When you apply for a house from us, during your referencing process, you will be contacted about Tenants Contents Insurance by a company called Let Alliance who can offer you this insurance. Please do consider their recommendations.

2. Tenant Liability Insurance

When you live in a Belvoir house, you will be required to pay a deposit which is to cover any damage that you may cause to the landlord’s property. The landlord can claim against your deposit at the end of your tenancy to cover any loss such as replacing damaged carpets, cleaning, repairing broken handles or taps etc. However, do you know that you can take out Tenant Liability Insurance whereby you can ask the insurance company to fix the broken items during your tenancy? The cost of this insurance is less than £10 per month and is fixed for all Belvoir tenants. The insurance company can pay to fix broken items up to £1500 per item. This is a great way to protect your deposit, so that you can use your deposit for your next house.

When you apply for a house from us, during your referencing process, you will be contacted about Tenants Liability Insurance by a company called Let Alliance who can offer you this insurance. Please do consider their recommendations.

3. Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover

If you were to fall ill, will you lose your income? If you are injured, will you be able to work to earn money for the rent? Most people live month to month, with little to no savings to cover even one month’s rent and household bills. We do not wish this misfortune on anyone, but this is a fact of life for many. Most people are not aware that they can take out Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover to protect them and their family against loss of income. Most people think it is expensive, when in fact it is not, and the cost depends on how much cover you want. This is tailored to your needs.

We would strongly urge you to consult with our trusted financial advisor Mike Bowcock, from the Mortgage Advice Bureau, who can advise you on the cover and the price. Please call him on 07737 409934 or email mike.bowcock@mab.org.uk.