Question

Insurance (England) | Responsibilities and Liabilities (England) | Tenancy Agreements (England)

Force majeure or limited cover for alternative accommodation

14 Jun 2020 | 2 comments

Hi there,

The KB page about landlord’s insurance has a note saying:

The tenancy agreement should take account of any implications of the type of insurance cover there is: for example, if the insurance places an upper limit on the cost of temporary accommodation it may be worth, within the tenancy, limiting liability to the insured amount.

From what I can see, the excellent agreement generated by the tenancy builder is silent on the subject of alternative accommodation. Two questions:

  1. We’ll be picking an insurance policy that gives £6000-£9000 over 24 months for alternative accommodation (on top of recent received from the tenant). What might the additional clause look like to follow your recommendation above (to cover for the event that alternative accommodation cost more than this), please?
  2. Alternatively, is there a need for a force majeure clause to cover a situation where the apartment we’re letting became uninhabitable owing to unforeseen circumstances, please?

Many thanks!

Answer

2 Comments

  1. Imported

    15/10/2018 8:14 pm

    Have in mind, there’s no requirement to provide alternative accommodation which is the main reason why the agreement remains silent on the point. A landlord can still provide it if they have cover but by not mentioning it, the landlord’s not committed.

    Again, we remain silent about if the property becomes uninhabitable for a reason. Even when uninhabitable, technically rent is still payable because it’s the land being rented technically. In reality of course, you wouldn’t charge rent and insurance would cover etc. but it’s nice to have options in our view.

    Please see this article which gives more information about this.

    Also, perhaps have a look at the insurance we recommend to our subscribers.

    guildy

  2. Imported

    Really helpful — many thanks for your advice!

    By mattsqu 15/10/2018 11:28 pm

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