Friday, September 14, 2007

Landlords House Insurance

Landlords and Property Owners have many options when it comes to the management of their property or properties. From sorting everything on their own to employing the services of a property management company. Here are therefore some tips for Landlords and Property Owners to make sure their assets are protected:
What can you do to protect your property?
Landlord Insurance is available so that in the event of a loss (by an insured event) you will be protected and covered. In order to reduce the chances of a loss you can however take certain steps to help. These include:
- Make your property more secure by installing deadlocks on doors and locks on the windows.
- Install an alarm system. Many insurers will offer a lower premium because you have lowered the risk of loss through theft. For certain postal areas a minimum level of security will be required.
- Remove potential fire hazards from around the outside of the house as well as inside
- particularly around the kitchen.
- Make sure you have working smoke detectors and a suitable fire extinguisher. Put the extinguisher somewhere handy and make sure members of your household know how to use it.
What should you insure your contents for?
As a landlord, it's quite possible that the property that you are letting contains contents that you own. It is important to note these contents and ensure that you have provided adequate cover for them in your insurance policy. It might be worth doing a room by room inventory and working exactly what level of cover you require. Again though if you are in any doubt, just ask your Insurance Broker.
How can landlords minimize financial losses related to repairs and maintenance?
You can avoid many problems by maintaining the property in excellent condition. Here's how:
- Use a written checklist to inspect the premises and fix any problems before new tenants move in.
- Encourage tenants to immediately report safety or security problems such as plumbing, heating, broken doors or steps
- whether in the tenant's unit or in common areas such as hallways and garages.
- Keep a written log of all tenant complaints and repair requests with details as to how and when problems were fixed.
- Handle urgent repairs as soon as possible
- take care of any safety issues within 24 hours. Keep tenants informed as to when and how the repairs will be made.
- Twice a year, give tenants a checklist on which to report potential safety hazards or maintenance problems that might have been overlooked. Use the same checklist to personally inspect all rental units once a year.
Also, your commitment to repair and maintenance procedures should be clearly set out in the lease or rental agreement. Owning a property or a portfolio of properties can be very rewarding so follow these simple tips and make sure you and your properties are protected at all times.
This article was written by Mark Burdett, Marketing Manager of Northern Counties Insurance Brokers

Car Insurance Online Quotes

In only a short while, you can obtain several great quotes. You'll even get very affordable auto insurance (online) quote as you'll be able to contrast quotes and packages and be able to make quite informed decisions on what's best for your vehicle insurance. Add the ease of use and you'll agree that there is no reason to do this any other way. You may wonder why such great online resources are free and what the catch might be...
Businesses normally use up much money in getting clients. Although clients do NOT truly contemplate this, this outlay is usually included in the price of the solution or product they procure. If it's a competitive industry, the cost of getting buyers will be higher. This will end up inflating what you ultimately pay. What does this information have to do with making savings in your auto insurance? You'll soon see...
An insurance agent usually contacts you and makes an attempt to sell insurance plans to you. This is the regular process of customer acquisition in the insurance market. You eventually pay for a policy if you're won over. The cost of taking care of such agents is part of the insurance company's overheads. Nevertheless, by now you understand it's included in the bill you are given.
However, by getting your auto insurance quotes and buying online, you remove that cost to the insurance company. Include how much easier it is for insurance companies to coordinate data online and you'll certainly agree they will prefer it. So, you guessed right: They hand over part of those savings to you.
You could easily get the best auto insurance quote online by simply receiving quotes from not less than three insurance quotes sites. Requesting quotes from a minimum of three quotes sites increase the chances that you'd realize bigger savings.
This is because offers not covered by one site would be covered by the other. And because your chances of getting lower insurance quotes has to do with the range of quotes you receive, the more insurance companies you obtain quotes from, the higher your chances. This offers you a broader basis for doing more extensive comparisons thereby increasing your chances of realizing more savings.