Importance of Landlords Insurance underlined
I read an interesting item on the internet that other day that made me think about how important it is for a landlord to get the appropriate insurance, and to abide by the health and safety regulations that relate to being a landlord. The article referred to a student who has suffered dreadful burns injuries in a fire in a rented property. It appears that she has launched a legal claim for £2 million against her former landlord and the landlords buy to let insurance policyholders have been told.
The item I read, reported that the Norwich Evening News reported that Layla Skalli suffered 80 per cent burns in a blaze which destroyed her flat in Magdalen Street, north Norwich last April.
The article went on to say that the Landlord had admitted 14 breaches of health and safety fire laws on May 7 at Norwich Crown court and was sentenced to 30 months in jail. This sentence was later reduced to 21 months after he agreed to pay Miss Skalli £20,000 compensation.
Interestingly, the article went on to say that Miss Skalli has launched a civil lawsuit against the landlord the High Court in London. It seems that the case will be heard late in 2011
Of course, we don’t know the full story, and it is not for me to judge who is in the wrong. It is dangerous to make assumptions based on reports of reports in newspapers. That said, 80% burns sounds truly horrific, and if there were so many breaches of health and safety regulations £20,000 doesn’t sound like much money.
It made me wonder where the insurance company would sit in all this. I asked a friend of mine, and he seemed to think that the insurance company would pay out under the landlords insurance, but that the landlord would have had a problem if he had bought normal household insurance instead. This, he said, is because the landlords insurance covers you for this kind of liability but household insurance doesn’t. That sounds like good news for the student with those horrid burns. I wonder if the insurance company will pursue the landlord to recoup some of its losses. If he was in breach of 14 health and safety regulations they might try. I hope he used a good insurance broker when he bought his landlords insurance.
