When a property is damaged
Loss of rent cover answers this, but only once an insured peril has made the property unfit to live in.
Learn which cover responds →Three different things can stop the rent, and three different covers answer them.
A tenant in arrears, a property that's damaged and uninhabitable, and a let standing empty are each met by a different cover. Landlord insurance pays out as three separate covers. Here they're set side by side against your own let, so you can see which one applies before you talk to your insurer or a broker.
Read the latest landlord insurance updatesFind the cover that fits your situation
Damage, non-payment and an empty let are different events, and each sits under a different part of your policy.
When a tenant stops paying
Rent guarantee is a separate product from loss of rent, sold with its own referencing and arrears conditions.
Read about disclosure →When the property stands empty
An unoccupancy clause can start its clock before your current policy began, and cover often falls away at a threshold.
Read the guide →What changed for landlord insurance in England on 1 May 2026
Section 38 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 reached into landlord insurance policy wording. For policies taken out or renewed in England from 1 May 2026, a term requiring the landlord to refuse tenants who claim housing benefit or universal credit, or who have children, has no effect, whatever the printed wording still says. This sits alongside the wider question of which cover answers which event: learn about the three situations when the rent stops and which cover responds to each one.
What the section actually removes
Section 38 does not strike the clause from the document. It takes away its legal effect for policies taken out or renewed in England from 1 May 2026, so an insurer cannot rely on that term to decline a claim on the grounds that the tenant receives benefits or has children.
What it leaves alone
This is one term losing effect. An insurer can still ask about the tenancy, set its own referencing conditions, and decide what it needs to know before cover starts. The duty to answer those questions accurately when the policy is taken out or renewed has not moved, which is set out in the fair presentation requirements under the Insurance Act 2015.
What to check at your next renewal
- Ask the insurer whether the current wording still names the barred term, and if so, whether they have confirmed it has no effect under s.38 for your renewal date.
- Check whether the wording still refers to a fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy, since most tenancies in England are now periodic under the same Act.
- Read the questions the insurer sends you at renewal as carefully as you did at purchase. They decide what a claim stands on later.
Working out which cover applies
Which cover answers what has happened
Three different events sit under three different covers, and the one that pays is the one matching what has actually happened to your let. The guide to understanding when the rent stops sets out those three situations and which cover answers each one, in more detail than fits here. Working out which applies to you is a matter of asking the same four questions in order, whatever the event turns out to be.
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Name what has happened to your let
Start with the event itself. A tenant in arrears, a property standing empty, and a property damaged beyond living in are three different situations, and each one points to a different part of a landlord policy.
Property damaged, tenant cannot live thereThis usually falls under loss of rent, which sits alongside buildings or contents cover and responds to damage from an insured peril named in the wording, such as fire or flood.
Tenant has stopped payingThis is what rent guarantee is sold to answer, and it is usually a separate policy or add-on.
Property is about to stand emptyThis brings the unoccupancy clause into play, which can alter or remove other cover once the let has been empty for a period set out in the policy.
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Check what has to be true before that cover pays
Each cover carries its own conditions, and a claim can fail even where the event itself is not in doubt. Loss of rent generally needs the damage to stem from an insured peril named in the policy. Rent guarantee generally needs the tenant to have been referenced before the tenancy started. Unoccupancy cover generally needs the insurer to have been told once the property passed the threshold set in the wording.
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Read the wording that decides the answer
The policy document is what settles whether a condition has been met. A clause naming the insured peril, the referencing requirement, or the day the unoccupancy clock starts uses particular words, and those words carry the answer.
Where a statute changes what an insurer can require, such as section 38 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 for policies taken out or renewed in England from 1 May 2026, the operative text decides that point in the same way the policy wording does.
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Put the specific question to your insurer
Once the event, the cover, and the condition are clear, the question to put to the insurer follows directly from them. Asking which peril triggered the damage, whether referencing was completed, or when the insurer was told the property stood empty gets a more useful answer than asking whether the policy covers the loss.
This sequence sets out how the covers generally relate to each other. It is not a reading of your own policy, which can set its own conditions and exclusions.
No quote forms, no affiliate links
A landlord insurance policy comes down to what is written in it, and the final answer sits with the insurer and the wording. Where a policy term or a section of an Act is quoted, the insurer or the statute is named alongside it, together with the date the wording was read, so you know when it applied.
No quote forms, no affiliate links
There are no quote forms on this site, no affiliate links, and no paid placement for any insurer. Choosing a policy, or moving from one insurer to another, happens directly between you and an insurer or a regulated adviser; nothing here leads toward a purchase.
Where practice differs between insurers
Where a threshold or condition differs between insurers, the range of common practice is set out. Your own wording, read alongside the questions set out on each page, is what decides the answer for your let.