What is Commercial Landlord Insurance?

Video Transcription

Hi, My name is Charlene Gohill and I’m an insurance adviser for Towergate Insurance

Today I’m going to talk about commercial landlord insurance.

Commercial landlord insurance is protection for a property owner who rents to a third-party business. 

There are three main areas where commercial property insurance will differ from a standard residential letting policy.

They are:

1. Building type
2. Building use 
3. Business insurance

Commercial properties are often of a different construction to standard domestic properties. 

This means that insurers must cover the property for a different set of risks. 

For example a commercial property may be a wooden barn or a steel structure, it may have large glass fronted shop window or have residential apartments attached.

Commercial properties might also have heating and electrical differences or have non-standard designs such as flat roofs or asbestos. 

All these factors mean that fixing and maintaining a property could be a more lengthy and expensive process.

The other thing that differs with commercial properties is that they have a commercial use. 

The tenants are businesses themselves - not families - and therefore pose a different set of risks to the property. 

For example, a restaurant has a commercial kitchen which may have large fryers or freezers, and a shop may have hundreds of people walking in and out every day, If your property is a commercial unit the tenants may have large amounts of waste or heavy duty equipment.

Risk of fire or damage to the structure is then higher and a specialist insurance policy can assess these risks and cover accordingly.

You, as the landlord, take an income from your property - even if it is without a profit - and this income and investment needs to be protected by business insurance. It’s getting the balance of adequate protection and value for money which pays to have an insurer who specialises in understanding your risks.