A quarter of landlords have wrong or no insurance, AXA finds

One in four residential landlords have the wrong or no insurance, according to research by AXA.

Around three-quarters of landlords with the wrong cover bought personal household insurance instead. Of those, one in five had previously lived at the address and simply renewed their existing cover when they moved out. Some 43% were unaware that landlord insurance existed, 28% thought landlord and residential cover were the same, and 11% thought landlord insurance was too expensive so bought a residential policy instead.

Managing director at AXA business insurance Darrell Sansom said: “As an industry, insurers need to take some responsibility to ensure that the right questions are asked when customers are buying insurance. And consumers need to be made aware of the pitfalls of buying the wrong cover.

“Someone else living in your property can present a very different insurance risk than you living there yourself – insurance products are designed and priced to match these risks so it’s important you get the right one.”

AXA believes that around 70% of residential landlords rent out just one property.