How Do You Make a Landlord Insurance Claim?

What are the steps in a landlord insurance claim?

Six steps: make the property safe, notify the insurer, document the damage, complete the claim form, agree the repair scope, then take the settlement. Work them in order, because insurers judge a claim partly on what you did before you picked up the phone.

Step 1: make the property safe and stop the damage spreading

Every landlord policy carries a condition requiring you to take reasonable steps to prevent further loss. Turn off the stopcock, isolate the electrics, board up a broken door.

Keep the receipts for emergency work, because insurers reimburse reasonable make-safe costs. If you hold landlord home emergency cover, use that call-out line first and let it handle the containment.

Do not commission permanent repairs before the claim is agreed. An insurer that never saw the damage can argue about the cause and the cost.

Step 2: notify your insurer and get a claim reference

Phone the claims line the day you learn about the incident and write down the claim reference. There is no universal 24-hour rule in UK insurance law, so the deadline that binds you is the notification condition printed in your own policy.

Give the facts only: what happened, when, where, and what is damaged. Do not speculate about the cause, and never admit fault.

If the incident involves an injury to a tenant, a visitor or a contractor, it is a property owners‘ liability claim and the rules change. Hand every letter and phone call to your insurer and answer nothing yourself.

Step 3: document the damage before you clear up

Photograph wide shots and close-ups of every affected room, then film a slow walk through the property. Keep the damaged items until the insurer confirms in writing that you can dispose of them.

Step 4: complete the claim form without contradicting yourself

Read the whole form before you answer anything, then answer every question and write N/A rather than leaving a blank. Insurers cross-check the form against your first phone call and the police report.

Mark estimates clearly as estimates and never inflate a figure. Where you are claiming under accidental damage cover, say plainly that the damage was a one-off event rather than something that developed over months.

Step 5: get quotes and agree the scope of work

Two written quotes are the norm on anything above a few hundred pounds. You can use your own contractor, but the insurer may cap what it pays at its own network rates.

Agree the scope in writing before work starts, especially on a landlord buildings insurance claim where drying, stripping out and reinstatement are priced separately.

Step 6: take the settlement and check the basis

The offer is the agreed cost of repair or replacement minus your policy excess, which is typically £100 to £500 and £1,000 or more on subsidence.

Buildings damage is almost always settled on a reinstatement basis, meaning new for old. Landlord contents is the section that often settles on an indemnity basis, with wear and tear deducted from carpets, sofas and white goods.

When will an insurer send a loss adjuster?

On anything much above £5,000, on any claim where the cause is disputed, and on every fire and subsidence claim. Smaller claims are settled from your photographs and two quotes without anyone visiting.

What a loss adjuster does

A loss adjuster is instructed by the insurer to establish the cause of the damage, check it against the policy wording and recommend a figure. They are usually an independent firm rather than an employee, but they act for the insurer.

On a block of flats policy the adjuster also has to split the loss between the freeholder’s building claim and each leaseholder’s own claim. Expect that to add weeks.

How to handle the visit

Be at the property, bring the inventory, the safety certificates and your maintenance receipts, and let the adjuster lead. Answer what you are asked without volunteering guesses about how the damage started.

Ask for the adjuster’s report reference and a target date for their recommendation. Respond to any follow-up request within seven days, because the clock stops while they wait for you.

When to pay for a loss assessor instead

A loss assessor is the mirror image: you hire them, and they negotiate against the insurer’s adjuster on your behalf. Their fee is normally a percentage of the settlement, so they only make sense on large or contested claims.

For a £3,000 escape of water claim you are paying for something you can do yourself. For a £60,000 fire claim with a disputed rebuild scope, an assessor usually recovers more than they cost.

How long should a landlord insurance claim take?

Two to six weeks for a routine water, theft or storm claim, six to twelve weeks once a loss adjuster is involved, and a year or more for subsidence. Loss of rent is paid in arrears alongside the main claim rather than up front.

Typical timescales by claim type

Subsidence is the outlier for both time and money. The ABI reported that the average domestic subsidence claim hit a record £20,000 in the second quarter of 2026, with £72m paid out in that quarter alone.

What the FCA rules require of your insurer

Under the FCA Insurance Conduct of Business Sourcebook, an insurer must handle claims promptly and fairly, give you reasonable guidance and information on progress, and settle promptly once terms are agreed.

ICOBS 8.1.1 also says an insurer must not unreasonably reject a claim. That includes rejecting it for a breach of condition that had nothing to do with the loss.

Can you claim for rent lost while the property is unlettable?

Yes, if the damage is an insured event and your policy includes loss of rent. It does not cover an ordinary void period between tenants, and it does not cover a tenant who simply stops paying.

What loss of rent cover pays

Most let property policies pay the rent for as long as the property is uninhabitable because of insured damage, capped at 12 or 24 months or at a percentage of the buildings sum insured.

Arrears are a different product. Rent guarantee insurance pays when a paying tenant stops paying, and it is claimed through a separate process with its own arrears threshold.

Proving the rent you lost

Send the tenancy agreement, twelve months of bank statements showing the rent landing, and the date the tenant moved out. Insurers pay the contractual rent, not the market rent you hoped to achieve at the next renewal.

Watch the unoccupancy condition while repairs run

A property emptied for repairs is still an empty property, and most policies restrict cover after 30 to 45 days. Tell your insurer in writing and ask whether the unoccupied property terms apply while the work is under way.

Possession and arrears also take longer since the Renters’ Rights Act came into force on 1 May 2026, which makes the loss of rent and rent guarantee sections worth more than they were.

Why do insurers reject landlord claims?

Maintenance, timing, exclusions and the original application. Very few landlord claims fail on an exotic clause buried in the wording.

The six reasons that come up most

Inspection conditions bite hardest on shared housing. Many HMO insurance policies make malicious damage cover conditional on documented inspections at set intervals.

The application form matters as much as the claim form

Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, a careless misrepresentation lets the insurer settle proportionately, while a deliberate one lets it void the policy from the start.

Under-insuring the rebuild sum is the quiet version of the same problem. If your landlord buildings cover is set at 60% of the true rebuild cost, expect roughly 60% of the claim.

What can you do if your insurer turns you down?

Ask for the decision and its reasons in writing, then put in a formal complaint. If eight weeks pass without a final response, or the response does not satisfy you, the Financial Ombudsman Service will review it free of charge.

Use the insurer’s complaints procedure first

FCA rule DISP 1.6.2R gives a firm eight weeks from receiving your complaint to send a final response, or a written explanation of why it cannot yet. Ask for the claim file, the loss adjuster’s report and the exact policy clause relied on.

Send a second set of quotes or a specialist report if the argument is about value rather than liability. Where a solicitor is needed, check whether your policy’s legal expenses cover will fund it.

Take it to the Financial Ombudsman service

You have six months from the date of the final response to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and you can go straight there if the eight weeks lapse without one.

For complaints referred on or after 1 April 2026 the ombudsman can award up to £455,000 where the insurer’s act or omission happened on or after 1 April 2019, and up to £205,000 for anything earlier. A decision you accept is binding on the insurer.

Does claiming push up next year’s premium?

Usually yes, and the claim sits on your record for five years whatever it was worth. That is why the size of the claim relative to your excess decides whether it is worth reporting at all.

What a claim does at renewal

Insurers rate on claims frequency more than claim value, so two £900 claims hurt more than one £9,000 claim. Escape of water and subsidence carry the heaviest loadings.

On a multi-property policy a single bad claim reprices the whole schedule at renewal, not just the property involved.

When it is cheaper not to claim

Never hide an incident you decided not to claim on. Most proposal forms ask about losses, not just claims, and answering wrongly is the misrepresentation that voids the policy later.