Do You Need Different Insurance for Furnished and Unfurnished Lets?
Both need a landlord policy, and the buildings section is identical either way. What changes is the contents section: a furnished let usually needs £10,000 to £30,000 of cover, an unfurnished one rarely needs more than £4,000.
Neither type is covered by standard home insurance. Once tenants move in, a landlord policy is the only contract that responds.
The structure, the fitted kitchen and the boiler are insured by landlord buildings insurance whether the rooms are full or empty. Furnishing the place simply adds a five-figure pile of replaceable property to the same policy.
The buildings section of a landlord policy is the same whichever way you let. What changes is contents: a furnished let has to cover sofas, beds, white goods and carpets, while an unfurnished one only covers the carpets, curtains and fittings you supplied. Set the contents sum too low and the insurer can scale down every payout, not just a total loss. Anything you supply also has to meet the fire safety labelling rules.
Compare let property insurance quotes for a furnished or unfurnished let.
- What counts as furnished, part-furnished or unfurnished?
- What cover does a furnished let need?
- What cover does an unfurnished let need?
- How much more does furnished cover cost in 2026?
- What happens if you under-insure furnished contents?
- What safety rules apply to furniture you supply?
- How do tax and pet rules change the furnished maths?
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What counts as furnished, part-furnished or unfurnished?
None of the three has a legal definition in England or Wales. Insurers price you on the contents sum insured you declare, not on the word you used in the advert.
How insurers read the three labels
A furnished let is walk-in ready: beds, wardrobes, sofas, a dining set, white goods and often crockery and cutlery. An unfurnished let is the structure plus the fitted kitchen and bathroom, usually with a cooker and flooring.
Part-furnished sits anywhere between the two and means whatever the tenancy agreement says it means. That vagueness is why your inventory carries more weight than the label.
| Type of let | What you usually supply | What the tenant supplies | Typical contents sum insured |
| Furnished | Beds, sofas, dining set, white goods, curtains, kitchenware | Personal belongings only | £10,000 to £30,000 |
| Part-furnished | White goods, carpets, curtains, blinds, light fittings | Beds, sofas, tables | £4,000 to £10,000 |
| Unfurnished | Cooker, flooring, blinds, fitted units | Everything moveable | £1,500 to £4,000 |
| HMO or student let | Furniture in every room plus communal areas | Personal belongings only | £15,000 to £40,000 |
| Short let or holiday let | Everything a guest needs, linen included | Nothing | £12,000 to £35,000 |
Why the advert does not bind your insurer
Declare a property unfurnished, then leave a sofa and a washing machine in it, and those items sit outside the sum insured. The insurer rebuilds the room and pays nothing towards what was in it.
Shared houses need HMO insurance rather than a standard let policy, and short-stay lets need Airbnb cover with linen and kitchenware inside the sum insured.
What cover does a furnished let need?
Buildings, contents and property owners‘ liability form the core, with accidental damage as the add-on furnished landlords claim on most. Contents is the section doing the real work.
Setting the contents sum insured
Landlord contents cover insures only what you own, priced new for old. Total the replacement cost at today’s prices rather than what you paid five years ago.
A three-bedroom furnished house usually lands between £15,000 and £25,000 once soft furnishings and kitchenware are counted. Most landlords guess low by around a third.
Your buy-to-let mortgage lender will insist on buildings cover for the full rebuild value either way. Contents is left to your judgement, which is exactly why it gets under-declared.
The add-ons furnished landlords claim on
- Accidental damage answers the cracked hob, the spilled dye and the foot through a door panel.
- Malicious or tenant damage cover sits separately on most policies and is the section that pays for a deliberately wrecked sofa.
- Rent guarantee matters more on a furnished let, because drying out and refurnishing takes longer than drying out an empty room.
- Loss of rent, included as standard on most landlord policies, typically runs to 12 months or 20% of the buildings sum insured.
Furnished lets fail differently as well as more expensively. Water that a bare room shrugs off destroys a mattress, a sofa and a rug in the same afternoon.
What cover does an unfurnished let need?
Buildings and liability are the minimum, plus a small contents sum insured for the items you left behind. Unfurnished almost never means empty.
Why unfurnished rarely means empty
Carpets, blinds and a cooker are still £1,500 to £4,000 of replaceable property. One kitchen fire takes all three in the same claim.
One practical route is a single contract. Combined buildings and contents cover normally costs less than two policies and removes the argument about which section a claim belongs to.
What the buildings section already covers
Fitted kitchen units, the bathroom suite, the boiler and built-in wardrobes are buildings, not contents. Insuring them twice is the commonest way unfurnished landlords overpay.
Free-standing white goods are the grey area. A plumbed-in dishwasher often falls inside buildings while the fridge beside it does not, so ask before you assume.
Whose belongings are whose
Your tenant’s own possessions are never yours to insure. Point them at tenants’ contents insurance and write the expectation into the tenancy agreement.
This cuts both ways at claim stage. If a leak ruins your carpet and their laptop, two separate policies pay two separate claims.
How much more does furnished cover cost in 2026?
Contents cover adds roughly £50 to £200 a year, which is 20% to 60% on top of a buildings-only premium. The median UK landlord policy runs at £284.75 a year.
What the extra premium buys
| Cover | Furnished let | Unfurnished let | What it costs a year |
| Buildings | Required | Required | £180 to £320 on both |
| Contents | Essential, £10,000 to £30,000 | Optional, £1,500 to £4,000 | £50 to £200 |
| Property owners’ liability | Included | Included | Rarely priced separately, £1m to £5m limit |
| Accidental damage | Recommended | Optional | £50 to £120 |
| Malicious or tenant damage | Recommended | Less common | Often an extra, sometimes excluded outright |
| Loss of rent | Included | Included | Bundled, usually 12 months |
| Typical total | £280 to £450 | £180 to £320 | Before rent guarantee or legal expenses |
When furnishing pays for its own premium
Furnished lets typically command 10% to 20% more rent in city centres, student areas and short-term corporate markets. On a £1,000 a month tenancy that is £1,200 a year against maybe £150 of extra cover.
The maths flips in family suburbs where tenants own their furniture already. There you are buying sofas nobody will pay extra for, then insuring them.
What happens if you under-insure furnished contents?
The insurer applies average and cuts every claim by the same proportion you under-declared. Insure £10,000 of contents when you own £20,000 and a £6,000 fire claim pays £3,000.
How the average clause cuts a claim
| Sum insured | Real replacement value | Shortfall | Claim made | Likely payout | You absorb |
| £20,000 | £20,000 | 0% | £6,000 | £6,000 | £0 |
| £15,000 | £20,000 | 25% | £6,000 | £4,500 | £1,500 |
| £10,000 | £20,000 | 50% | £6,000 | £3,000 | £3,000 |
| £6,000 | £20,000 | 70% | £6,000 | £1,800 | £4,200 |
The reduction bites on a £600 claim as hard as on a £20,000 one. Shaving the sum insured to save £30 a year is the worst trade in landlord insurance.
The inventory is your evidence
A dated, photographed inventory signed by the tenant is what turns a disputed contents claim into a paid one. It is also the only sane way to set the sum insured in the first place.
Update it at every tenancy change and after any replacement. Insurers ask you to prove ownership and value, not just loss.
What safety rules apply to furniture you supply?
Every upholstered item you provide must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, and any appliance you supply must be safe to use. Supply non-compliant furniture and you have committed a criminal offence, quite apart from what your insurer says about the fire claim.
The fire labels that have to stay on
The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 cover sofas, armchairs, beds, mattresses, bed bases, cushions and seat pads. Curtains, carpets, bedclothes, duvets, pillowcases and anything made before 1950 sit outside them.
Compliance is proved by the permanent label sewn into the item. Cut it off and you cannot show the sofa ever met the standard.
Enforcement runs through trading standards under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, with a level 5 fine that has been unlimited in England and Wales since 2015. The regulations have applied to residential lettings since March 1993.
PAT testing the appliances you provide
No statute names portable appliance testing, but the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 and the government’s electrical safety guidance require anything you supply to be safe. Councils routinely make PAT testing a condition of an HMO licence.
A qualified electrician charges roughly £1 to £3 an item on top of a £50 to £80 call-out. Test between tenancies and keep the certificate with the inventory.
That sits alongside the five-yearly EICR on the fixed wiring, which is separate and mandatory for every let. Both are part of your landlord responsibilities regardless of how you furnish.
How do tax and pet rules change the furnished maths?
You can deduct the cost of replacing furniture but never the cost of buying it in the first place. Since May 2026 you also carry the pet damage risk on your own contents policy, with no pet deposit to fall back on.
Replacement of domestic items relief in 2026
The old 10% wear and tear allowance ended in April 2016. Replacement of domestic items relief took its place and only pays out when you actually replace something.
You deduct the cost of a like-for-like replacement plus delivery and disposal costs, then subtract anything you were paid for the old item. Upgrade a sofa to a sofa bed and HMRC allows only what the plain sofa would have cost.
The initial furnishing of a let is not deductible at all. Nor is the slice of a replacement your insurer has already reimbursed, which is the overlap most landlords get wrong.
Pets, the renters’ rights act and your contents cover
Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, in force since 1 May 2026, a tenant can request a pet and you have 28 days to answer in writing. Refusal now needs a specific, defensible reason.
The clause that would have let you require pet damage insurance was dropped during the Bill’s passage in July 2025. The deposit cap of five weeks’ rent still stands, so there is no pet deposit either.
That leaves your contents policy carrying the risk on a furnished let. Check whether damage by domestic animals is excluded before you say yes to the spaniel.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
No law requires it and no lender usually insists on it. Given a furnished house holds £15,000 to £25,000 of your property, going without is a decision rather than a saving.
Yes, before the furniture arrives. It is a change in the risk you declared, and an undeclared change is the easiest way to have a contents claim reduced.
Most insurers treat fitted carpets, curtains and blinds as contents even though they feel permanent. Check the wording, because a minority put fitted flooring in the buildings section.
No. You have no insurable interest in their property, so their sofa and their laptop need their own tenants’ policy.
Usually £4,000 to £10,000, covering white goods, floor coverings, window dressings and light fittings. Price it from your inventory rather than from a rule of thumb.
Only if you hold malicious damage or accidental damage cover, depending on how it happened. General deterioration from ordinary use is never covered.
No. Buildings cover is rated on rebuild cost and construction, so the sofas make no difference to that section.
Yes, and leasehold landlords often do because the freeholder insures the structure through the block policy. Most insurers will write contents, liability and loss of rent on their own.
It is furnished to a higher standard but rated as a short-let risk, not a standard tenancy. Guests change weekly, so the damage frequency assumption is different.
They are not normally a policy condition, but they evidence the reasonable care every policy expects. After an appliance fire, an insurer will ask what you did to check it.
Yes, provided each upholstered item still carries its permanent fire safety label. Anything made before 1950 falls outside the 1988 regulations.