Insurance matters
Many people don’t realise that taking in a lodger will affect their insurance, or that it is something that they ought to tell their insurers about in advance. If you do not do this, you may invalidate your insurance cover.
Also, if there is a theft at your property where there is no forced entry, particularly if it is pretty clear that it is the lodger who is the thief, your insurers will generally be entitled to refuse to pay. This is both where it is the lodger who turns out to be the thief and also if it turns out to be the lodger who left the door or windows open. so the burglar could get in.
Asking about unspent convictions
Many insurance companies will also expect you to ask potential lodgers whether they have any unspent convictions. An embarrassing question which many landlords will baulk at.
Probably the best thing to do is to have this in an information form (discussed further on day 11), and ask them to fill it in, and sign and date it. If they raise objections to the unspent convictions question, just say it is something your insurers have asked for.
Make sure you keep this form, in case you ever have to make an insurance claim. If it turns out later that the lodger *did* have a criminal record, and you need to make a claim, it should be all right, provided you can show that you asked them about it. If you don’t ask the question, though, (and have the form to prove it), your insurers may use this as an excuse not to pay.
If your insurance company turns out to be really difficult about allowing you to take in lodgers, don’t worry. You should be able to find another insurance firm who can help – for example, see below.
Lodgers with criminal records
If you know that your prospective lodger has a criminal record, but you trust him and want to let the room to him anyway (after all ex-cons must live somewhere, and they are not all bad) the charity Unlock (the National Association of Reformed Offenders) may be able to help you find a company prepared to offer cover.
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Products:
A letter to insurers regarding insurance cover is one of the letters included in my >> New Lodger pack.
A suitable insurance product would be this one from Alan Boswell. It can cover you for up to six lodgers and has appropriate contents cover. There is a £50 standard excess which is very low as most now start at £100. A discount of up to 30% is available if you contact Alan Boswell via >> this link. Make sure you tell them that you take in lodgers and say you learned about their insurance from the Lodger Landlord website.
In the case of Bulgarian workers – should you make sure they do not use their Lodging address for opening bank accounts and redirecting mail? Would it be prudent also for the landlord to check for worek permits?
We look at checking prospective lodgers on Day 12. Quick comments on your questions –
1. If the worker has no other address in the UK he may have no choice but to use his lodging address for his bank account
2. Yes it probably would be prudent to check work permits for overseas lodgers
Hastings Boro’ Council at the last NLA meeting a couple of months ago, addressed us members that landlords were not permitted to request a CRB check on tenants – pointedly not those from Council referrals. At the same time Hastings Council would not grant an HMO licence to a landlord unless s/he had a CRB check first, and to be re-CRB checked on each Licence renewal date! When I stood up and queried this inequality the Officer replied that they had received a ruling, in conjunction with Police consultations, that to request a CRB check was an infringement of tenants’ Human Rights, but that the Council had a duty to prospective tenants to ensure that landlords were proven free of conviction before letting. This ruling makes me query whether I would indeed have the right to ask a prospective tenant to admit anything for my insurers, in case Hastings unlicensed me.
Yes, I see what you mean. Probably the best thing would be to speak to your insurers. If they ask you to ask the tenant about previous convictions (this is not the same as a CRB check) then I don’t think you can be criticised for asking them – as otherwise you might lose your insurance cover.
I think there are limits on who can apply for a CRB check so you probably would not be able to do that anyway.
Thanks for that. To enlarge, for a short while the CRB checks used to be done by Hastings Council on their own referrals to reduce homelessness and ensure HMO landlord safety, but this safety check has now been withdrawn on Human Rights. However, Hastings referred tenants still have the right to see my CRB by virtue of my license. Of course I could refuse to accept Council referrals but this could be construed by the Council as discrimination and possibly affect my license. It all makes insurance difficult.
I agree, it does sound unfair. BTW Have a look at this article on my Landlord Law Blog, it might interest you: http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/01/27/fast-trak-to-the-rescue-for-social-housing-tenants-2/
I am trying to get insurance for having one, and perhaps two, lodgers in my own home. So far, I have found it impossible to obtain this for one lodger (even though this person had lodged with me for more than six years) and impossible to find it for two lodgers. As Tess has said, not letting an insurance company know about lodgers could very well invalidate your whole buildings and contents policies – even if your claim is for something quite unconnected to a lodger. Kafkaesquely, it also seems impossible to have an insurance policy that excludes the actions of lodgers. Ergo, if a private individual living in their own homes tries to take advantage of the government’s rent a room let scheme, they cannot readily obtain insurance.