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Buildings on a reinstatement basis — the cost of rebuilding, including demolition, site clearance and professional fees, not the market value and not what you paid.
Property owners’ liability for injury or damage to third parties arising from your ownership of the property. Managing agents, universities and licensing authorities routinely ask to see it.
Loss of rent and alternative accommodation while the property cannot be lived in after insured damage. The indemnity period needs to reflect how long a rebuild in that street would actually take.
Landlord’s contents — carpets, white goods, furniture and the fixtures you provide. Furnished student houses carry far more of this than an unfurnished let.
Malicious damage and theft by tenants, which is an option rather than a given, and is one of the first things a wording restricts on student and HMO occupancy.
Trace and access for the cost of finding and getting at a leak, which on a converted terrace with buried pipework is often the larger part of an escape-of-water claim.
Legal expenses and rent guarantee as bolt-ons, covering possession proceedings and tenant default subject to referencing conditions.
The University of Southampton and Solent University sit close to the centre of the city, and the streets around Portswood, Highfield, Swaythling, Bevois Valley and the Polygon carry a dense concentration of shared houses. A large share of that stock is nineteenth and early twentieth century terraced housing adapted room by room — a reception room turned into a bedroom, an extra bathroom carved out upstairs, a kitchen extended at the back.
Insurers price that occupancy differently, and they are entitled to know about it. The recurring points to declare are: how many separate households occupy the property, whether tenancies are individual room agreements or a single joint tenancy, whether tenants are students, whether any occupant is in receipt of benefits, whether the property is licensed, and whether it is let furnished. Getting any of these wrong is not a technicality — it goes to the fair presentation of the risk, and it is the reason claims on shared houses get disputed.
Occupancy also drives the claims profile. More unrelated occupants means more cooking, more appliances, more bathrooms, more locks and more turnover, which shows up as escape of water, accidental damage, fire from cooking and theft without forcible entry. Our guide to HMO landlord insurance works through the wording differences, and tenant use and your property insurance covers why occupancy changes matter mid-term.
Mandatory HMO licensing applies across England to a house in multiple occupation occupied by five or more people forming more than one household, whatever the number of storeys. Councils may additionally designate parts of their area for additional licensing covering smaller HMOs, and those designations are made for a limited period and are reviewed, so the position in a particular Southampton ward can change between one tenancy and the next. Check the current designation with Southampton City Council for the specific address rather than relying on what was true when you bought.
Insurers ask about licensing because a licence carries conditions — on amenities, on fire precautions, on room sizes and on management — that overlap directly with the physical risk. Unlicensed operation where a licence is required is a criminal offence and can expose a landlord to a rent repayment order, and it is a fact that an insurer would expect to be told at placement or at renewal.
The related fire safety duties bear on cover in the same way. Interlinked alarms, fire doors, protected escape routes and electrical installation condition reports are licensing and regulatory requirements first, but they are also exactly what an insurer relies on when writing a shared house, and a policy condition may make them contractual as well.
Southampton sits where the Test and the Itchen meet Southampton Water, and the lower-lying parts of the city near the docks, Northam, the lower Itchen, Woolston, Weston, Millbrook and Redbridge are closer to tidal water than most of the rented stock further up the hill. Tidal flooding, surface water flooding and drainage overwhelm are all normal underwriting questions here, and the answer varies street by street rather than postcode by postcode.
An important point for landlords specifically: the Flood Re scheme was built to help owner-occupier household insurance and does not generally extend to buy-to-let landlord policies. A landlord with a flood-exposed property is therefore buying in the open market, where cover may come with a separate and substantially larger flood excess, or may need a specialist insurer. That is worth establishing before exchange on a purchase, not after.
Escape of water is the more frequent problem across the whole city, and it is the dominant claim type on converted terraces and older flats: a failed flexible connector, a leaking shower tray on a first-floor bathroom that was once a bedroom, or a burst pipe in a house left cold and empty over a vacation. Our note on unoccupied property insurance covers what changes when nobody is living there.
Alongside the terraced stock, Southampton has substantial purpose-built flats — older blocks, post-war rebuilding in and around the centre, and newer waterfront development. Where you own a block or a freehold, or sit on a residents’ management company or right-to-manage company, the buildings sum insured is your responsibility and it is the figure most often left to drift.
Reinstatement cost is not market value. It is the cost of rebuilding, including demolition, site clearance, professional fees and compliance with current building regulations, and construction costs have moved sharply enough in recent years that a figure indexed but never reassessed can fall well behind. If the sum insured is materially short, an average clause can cut every claim proportionately, not just a total loss. A periodic professional reinstatement cost assessment is the standard answer; our note on reinstatement cost and the underinsurance check explain how the shortfall is applied.
For blocks of flats there are also cladding and external wall questions. Insurers writing multi-occupancy residential buildings ask about external wall construction, balcony construction, any remediation programme and any waking watch, and the answers materially affect availability and terms.
Unoccupancy over the summer. Student houses commonly stand empty between tenancies. Most landlord policies restrict cover once a property has been unoccupied beyond a stated period — often thirty, forty-five or sixty consecutive days — and impose conditions about draining down, heating, inspections and securing the property. A house emptied at the end of June and relet in September can cross that line unnoticed, and cover for escape of water, theft and malicious damage is exactly what falls away first.
Occupancy declared once and never updated. A property let to a family when the policy started and to five students by the third renewal is not the risk the insurer wrote. Tell them when it changes.
Loss of rent set too low or too short. On a licensed HMO the rent roll is several individual rents, and re-letting a shared house is tied to the academic year rather than the calendar — a rebuild finishing in November may mean losing the whole year.
Contents cover forgotten on furnished lets. Furnished student houses carry real value in beds, desks, sofas, white goods and flooring, and buildings cover does not reach it.
Portfolios split across several insurers. Landlords who buy one property at a time end up with different renewal dates, different excesses and inconsistent wordings. Consolidating usually improves both the terms and the chance that the whole portfolio is actually covered on the same basis.
Property owners’ liability limit left at the default. Managing agents, letting agents and licensing conditions increasingly specify a minimum, and the default on an old policy may no longer meet it.
Not automatically. Many landlord wordings are written for a single family on an assured shorthold tenancy, and student, HMO, short-let and benefit occupancy are restricted, rated differently or excluded unless declared. Declaring the occupancy accurately at placement and again whenever it changes is what keeps the cover intact.
Mandatory licensing applies to any HMO occupied by five or more people forming more than one household. Councils can also designate areas for additional licensing that catches smaller HMOs, and those designations run for a set period and are periodically reviewed, so the answer for a given street can change. Check the current position for the specific address with Southampton City Council, and tell your insurer what the answer is.
Most policies restrict cover after a stated period of continuous unoccupancy and attach conditions — regular documented inspections, draining down or maintaining heating, securing the property and disconnecting services. Escape of water, theft and malicious damage are usually the first to be withdrawn. Tell the insurer before the void starts rather than after something happens.
Often yes, but terms vary considerably street by street, and a separate, larger flood excess is common. Flood Re supports owner-occupier household insurance and does not generally extend to buy-to-let, so a landlord is buying in the open market. Where the mainstream market declines, specialist insurers will sometimes write the risk if it is presented properly with flood history, floor levels and any resilience measures.
Usually there is a loss of rent element, but the amount and the indemnity period vary and both are often too small. Work out what the property actually earns over the period it would realistically take to rebuild and relet — and for a student let, remember that re-letting follows the academic year, not the month the builders finish.
Normally the freeholder or the management company insures the structure under the lease and recharges the cost through the service charge, and the leaseholder insures contents and any improvements. If you sit on a residents’ management or right-to-manage company you are effectively the buyer of that buildings policy, and the sum insured and the liability limit are yours to get right.
Related reading: Business insurance in Southampton · HMO landlord insurance · Unoccupied property insurance · Loss of rent insurance explained · Property owners’ insurance · Areas we cover
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.
