Landlords don't have it easy

The Insurance all Residential Landlords should have.

Landlords don’t have it easy in the current climate. Many residential property are ‘mum and dad’ investors, who are finding it increasingly challenging to protect their assets. Despite the low interest rates, costs are still tight with the upkeep and maintenance of the property. ARAG’s Residential Landlord Legal cover can be a huge benefit for investors, whether it’s rogue tenants, troublesome neighbours or even conflict with contractors who undertake work at the property.

Legal issues for landlords

Property damage, nuisance, rental arrears and trespass are other issues that keep landlords up at night. If they have a dispute relating to their property, contents and/or fixtures and fittings, they may have a claim.

An example may be trespass on their property: The landlord has clearly assigned designated areas for the tenant to occupy. However, there may be areas that are not accessible or out of bounds and not part of their rental agreement eg. storage or an attic). If these areas are accessed or used by the tenant despite contrary agreements, with our policy the landlord may contact ARAG to open a claim and have a lawyer put forward an injunction to the tenant.

The ARAG Residential Landlords policy protects your legal rights for both pursuit and defence of matters relating to your investment. Additionally, the landlord would have access to both our dedicated document centre and ARAG telephone legal information helpline for questions relating to their policy. This allows landlords to be proactive rather than reactive, providing an opportunity to defuse situations before they become a claim. Traditional landlord insurance policies only respond when there is financial loss or damage to the property. ARAG Residential Landlord insurance covers all legal costs, approved out-of-pocket disbursements, expert witness report costs, court costs.

Remedies to common issues

For one of the more common issues, such as rental arrears or rental default, landlords can also rely on the legal expense insurance policy for help. ARAG will work with the landlord to recover rent arrears and take action to pursue their legal right to recover outstanding rental income due under a tenancy agreement for their property. Under the policy, repossession and eviction assistance is also available.

LEI not just for tenancy matters

Contract disputes cover can be included as an optional extra under the Residential Landlord policy. If a dispute arises following an agreement to install new appliances in the kitchen which would also include a small renovation. If during the course of the renovations the landlord determines that the work is not in line with the original contract and asks the contractor to remedy or stop renovations, the renovation company may take action against the landlord by demanding payment for the completed work. This becomes a stressful situation for all parties including the tenants. ARAG would appoint a lawyer and the landlord would have their legal costs covered by the ARAG policy.

The ARAG Residential Landlord policy is only available on residential properties.