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Holiday Home Owners should check their holiday home properties more regularly during adverse weather. Specialist Holiday Home Insurance broker, Boshers Ltd suggests that holiday home owners would be wise to inspect their furnished holiday lets more frequently during periods of adverse weather, irrespective of their holiday home insurance policies minimum inspection requirements.

Already this winter the UK has been buffeted by a number of storms, bringing high winds, heavy rain and flooding. The latest storm continues to batter North West England and Scotland and according to the Met Office more inclement weather is on the way.

Holiday Let Owners are well advised to inspect their properties on a regular basis and if at all possible, every few days during this inclement weather. Claims instances and their financial, physical and psychological impact can be reduced or mitigated if slipped slates, lose chimney pots, broken branches, blocked watercourses and drains or burst pipes are spotted in time and rectified quickly.

If you live some distance away from your holiday home consider appointing your holiday letting agent, a holiday home services company, your housekeeper or a friendly neighbour, to regularly inspect the property for you.

Through careful property management and good housekeeping, owning a second home for the purpose of holiday letting needn’t be stressful and insurance premiums can be sustained at sensible levels.

Mark Lavington Cert CII, Director of Boshers Ltd commented that, “during the extremely cold spells last winter, many second homes suffered water damage through burst pipes and the extent of some of the insurance claims were exacerbated by delays in discovering the damage”.
For additional guidance on preventative maintenance for holiday home owners, please refer to Boshers Winter Maintenance Checklist

How to make a claim – If your holiday home or main residence is insured via a Boshers Insurance scheme underwrtten by Ecclesiastical – during business hours, please telephone our dedicated claims staff at Boshers on 01237 427992 or alternatively call the Ecclesiastical claims helpline to report your claim on 0845 603 8381. Out of hours, to report a new claim other than legal expenses claim, please call 0845 603 8381 quoting your Holiday Home Insurance policy number, insurer and state that Boshers Ltd are your broker.

Second Home Revival. A recent report by Knight Frank examines the growing demand for new-build holiday homes in the UK. The report highlights some interesting statistics such as in the three years up until the beginning of 2010, the growth in nights spent in self-catering apartments grew by 67% to 9.2m and the number of nights in self-catering houses, cottages and lodges grew 20% to 20.8m.

In terms of age groups the, the greatest growth in the tourist industry at present is accounted for by mature people in higher social groups. The trend towards staycations is becoming increasingly concentrated at the upper end of the market and is becoming spread more evenly throughout the year.

Read the rest of the report entitled Second Home Revival here….

Holiday Home Owners are considered as Landlords under HSE legislation and therefore have specific legal responsibilities to their guests (tenants) when it comes to gas safety. In order to comply with the legislation all furnished holiday let owners should have all the gas appliances and gas boilers in their holiday homes serviced in accordance with the manufacturers guidelines and have a Gas Safety Check carried out. This work must be carried out by a Gas Safe Registered Business. Furnished Holiday Let Owners Are Warned That Gas And Cowboys Don’t Mix! Visit the Gas Safe Register website for specific gas safety information for landlords including a facility to search for a registered business in your area.

Furnished Holiday Let Owners Are Warned That Gas And Cowboys Don’t Mix

According to research carried out in 2009 on behalf of the Gas Safe Register at least a quarter of a million gas appliances installed in our homes each year are done illegally. At least 7,500 illegal gas fitters in GB are doing the most common and often most dangerous types of gas work in our homes.

Illegal gas workers who make false claims about their qualifications and carry out unsafe gas work could put you, your family and your guests at risk from gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning. Owners who fail to use a Gas Safe Registered Businesss to carry out their statutory duty as a landlord to have annual Gas Safety Checks on their holiday home gas appliances could also invalidate their holiday home insurance.

Holiday home owners will also find the links below of interest:

For Self-Catering holiday cottage owners in Scotland, the Scottish Government has produced the following:

You may also find the following posts for holiday home owners of interest:

Follow this link for posts similar to Holiday Let Insurance for your annexe other useful resources for holiday home owners

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

Owners improving their holiday home WOW FACTOR should consider their holiday home insurance! In a competitive domestic self-catering holiday market, holiday home owners are increasingly turning to property improvements to increase the WOW FACTOR and appeal of their holiday homes, cottages and apartments.

When planning to undertake major improvements which go beyond new decor, owners are reminded to contact their holiday home insurance provider for advices prior to the work commencing and just as importantly after works have been completed in order that sums insured can be adjusted accordingly. The benefit of keeping your holiday home insurance adviser in the loop is that you can then rest assured in the knowledge that you will have the corrrect cover in place.

For information on ensuring that your holiday home insurance sums insured are correct, read Boshers Guide to Holiday Home Insurance Sums Insured.

We at Boshers understand the needs of holiday home, cottage complex and apartment owners. If you do not already benefit from our comprehensive holiday home insurance policy, contact us today on 01237 429444 or email cottages@boshers.co.uk and we’ll make a diary note to speak to you nearer your renewal date.

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

Holiday Home Insurance | Holiday Home Owners Require Liability Cover – Why? As a responsible holiday home owner you will always ensure that your holiday home is as safe an environment as possible for your guests and employee’s to frequent. However, it is often the unforeseen that will cause accidents leading to compensation claims which can be substantial.

A slippery path, a loose paving slab, weather beaten garden furniture! – Have you inspected yours lately?

A comprehensive Holiday Home Insurance policy, such as that arranged by Boshers will provide cover to indemnify you against your legal liability to pay damages and legal costs arising out of claims for bodily injury, death, disease or illness from a third party such as an employee, (i.e. a cleaner, gardener or key holder) and paying guests in connection with the running of your second home as a furnished holiday let.

How much Employers Liability Insurance should you have? If you have a contract of service with anyone who helps you maintain your holiday let business, whether spoken, written or implied and you provide them with work materials and equipment, then you may be regarded as their employer, irrespective of their tax status. It is a legal requirement, that you have in place Employer’s Liability Insurance of at least £5m, in practice many insurers provide cover of £10m.

How much Public, Products and Personal Liability Insurance should you have? Whilst not a compulsory insurance, we would recommend cover of at least £3m for small properties that sleep up to six guests and £5m for larger properties.

The above cover is generally provided as part of a packaged Holiday Home Insurance policy, also covering the buildings and contents of your holiday home.

For articles on Health & Safety for holiday home owners visit www.boshers.co.uk/blog. Additional guidance and holiday home insurance quotes are available from the Boshers Holiday Home Insurance Team on 01237 429444 or visit www.boshers.co.uk.

Boshers | Holiday Home Insurance | Visit our Facebook Page | Click here… Holiday Let Owners can now keep up to date with useful snippets of information on all aspects of running a Furnished Holiday Let as well as useful Holiday Home Insurance information by visiting us at Boshers | Facebook Page

Visit now and become a friend – just click on the link Boshers | Facebook Page

Insurance Premium Tax Rise – ONLY 1% Holiday Home Insurance purchasers will today breathe a sigh of relief that in todays Emergency Budget, the Chancellor, George Osbourne announced that Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will only be increased by 1% to a total of 6%. This increase follows widespread speculation that he would use the Emergency Budget to announce a far larger hike in the tax.     

Holiday Home Insurance – cover for evicting “Squatters”. Thankfully the risk of squatters occupying well managed holiday cottages marketed at a fair rate to ensure high occupancy throughout the year is slim. However with problems surrounding the supply of affordable housing in rural and coastal areas the threat is ever present. Not all holiday home insurance policies are the same and certainly do not offer equal value for money.

Boshers holiday home insurance policy has a bespoke Legal Expenses section arranged by Ecclesiastical with DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited. Our policyholders benefit from a bespoke holiday let section. DAS will negotiate for policyholders legal rights to evict anyone in their property who does not have their permission to be there but not including claims arising from or relating to a lease of land or buildings of more than 56 days.“Squatting” is not a legal term and when a holiday home is taken over for a short period, the legal position is usually simple: the owner can obtain an eviction order.

However, the process can be dragged out by technicalities and end up taking time and treasure to sort out.

Under section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 it is a criminal offence to use violence or a threat of violence to gain entry to a holiday home if someone, such as a squatter, is present. But it is not a criminal offence to go in yourself, if you do it peacefully, or to break back in and change the locks if no one is there. That is why squatters lock doors and keep one person in at all times.

Different rules apply if squatters move into a holiday home that is occupied. In that case, the holiday home owner can force a way in or the police can evict the squatters. However, the police can be reluctant to act. Our clients benefit from comprehensive cover and peace of mind when insuring their furnished holiday lets with our specialist Holiday Home Insurance contract.
Running a Holiday Let is not always plain sailing

Running a Holiday Let is not always plain sailing. Owners should consider their Holiday Home Insurance provider wisely.

By choosing to partner with Boshers as your broker and Ecclesiastical Insurance as your underwriter, you will benefit from the following:

Peace of Mind – we have worked closely with our Holiday Home Insurance underwriter Ecclesiastical, holiday letting agents and owners for two decades to create a comprehensive insurance policy specifically designed to meet the needs of discerning furnished holiday let owners.

Quality – Together with Ecclesiastical we share a commitment to bring you a quality holiday home insurance policy with highest possible standards of service.

Running a Holiday Let is not always plain sailingPersonal Service – Whether we are advising you on your holiday home insurance during business hours or you are dealing with Ecclesiastical 24/7/365 regarding a claim, you will talk to a real person not a machine.
Fair Treatment – We share with Ecclesiastical a philosophy to treat each customer the way we would like to be treated ourselves: with integrity, empathy, promptness, fairness and expertise.

Financial Strength – As one of the largest British Owned Insurers with group assets of over £1billion and net assets of over £200m our Holiday Home Insurance underwriter Ecclesiastical have a Standard & Poor’s A- rating. At the time this was awarded in April 2013 they maintained a stable outlook for the company. In December 2012, A M Best affirmed their A (excellent) rating. Visit www.boshers.co.uk for more information.

Running a Holiday Let is not always plain sailing

As running a holiday let is not always plain sailing holiday home owners will also find the links below of interest:

For Self-Catering holiday cottage owners in Scotland, the Scottish Government has produced the following:

You may also find the following posts for holiday home owners of interest:

Follow this link for posts similar to Holiday Let Insurance for your annexe other useful resources for holiday home owners

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

Holiday home insurance specialists, Boshers Ltd advise furnished holiday let owners to review their cover and in particular to check that sums insured are correct. Mark Lavington, Director of Boshers Ltd said that, “many holiday home owners will find that their holiday home insurance falls due for renewal during the Spring and early Summer as this is often when properties were purchased or began their life as furnished holiday lets. This is therefore a poignant time to ensure that you have sufficient cover”.

Suitable holiday home insurance will give you peace of mind should the worst happen, however you’ll need to ensure the correct buildings and contents sum insured are specified to ensure the right amount of cover is provided as the implications of underinsurance can be costly.

Holiday Home Insurance. Are you fully covered?

Underinsurance

It is important not to underinsure your holiday home property or its contents. This is because if you only insure for say, 50% of the reinstatement value of your property or contents you stand to have any claim payment reduced by half and you will be considered as your own insurer for the difference and thus bear a rateable proportion of the loss accordingly. The guidance below will help you calculate the correct figures and avoid the potential for underinsurance.

Rebuilding Costs

Your holiday home buildings sum insured should represent the amount that you would have to pay to rebuild your holiday home again should there be a total loss e.g. in the event of a fire. This should include the cost of rebuilding boundary walls or fences, reinstating driveways and outbuildings. Internally you will need to consider fixtures and fittings such as built in bedroom furniture, kitchens and bathrooms as well as redecoration, basically everything that is fixed and would be left behind if you sold the property.

The Association of British Insurers’ (ABI) rebuilding cost calculator is designed to help you assess the rebuilding cost of your property, if it falls within a range of standard house types. There is of course no substitute for instructing a professional Surveyor to prepare a Rebuilding Cost Assessment for insurance purposes. The RICS web site can be used to search for a Chartered Surveyor (http://www.ricsfirms.com/) in your area.

Index linking

Because your holiday home insurance buildings sum insured is index-linked (i.e. it’s adjusted according to inflation), if the worst happens and the sum insure is sufficient your claim will be paid in full up to the sum insured. It is none the less, important that the sum insured as well as being correct at outset, is also increased to reflect improvements that you make to your holiday home, such as adding an extension, conservatory or a designer kitchen or bathroom.

Contents Calculator

Your holiday home contents sum insured is the total value of replacing your holiday home contents with new items, should there be a total loss e.g. in the event of a fire. It’s important that your sum insured is correct so that your insurer can quickly pay any insurance claims you make.

The most effective way of working out your contents sum insured is to draw up an inventory of all the contents in your holiday home, room by room. Against each item write the replacement cost for a similar brand new item. The contents of your holiday home includes everything that isn’t fixed, which you would take with you if you sold and interestingly also includes carpets, so ensure that you allow sufficient to re-carpet throughout. In respect of books, works of art, television and audio visual equipment a single article limit may apply, be sure to check that you have sufficient cover and for items exceeding these limits please refer to your broker for further advices. Index linking may apply to the contents section of your Holiday Home Insurance policy; however it is important that you ensure that the sum insured is sufficient at outset and each renewal. In today’s market this is particularly pertinent as competition for guests dictates that holiday homes are increasingly furnished to a high standard and equipped with expensive flat screen televisions and accessories such as hot tubs and home gyms.

Loss of rental income

A quality Holiday Home Insurance policy should provide cover for loss of rental income, for insured perils which consequently render the holiday home uninhabitable for a period during which the property is repaired. As it may take some time to rebuild a holiday home levelled by fire or damaged by flooding; cover should be considered for up to two years. Check that your loss of rental income sum insured is sufficient and that your projected gross holiday letting income does not exceed the cover provided.

Should you require any additional guidance or a holiday home insurance quote, please contact a member of Boshers Holiday Home Insurance Team on 01237 429444.