What Should Landlords Check Before Spring Sets In?
Most landlords haven't, not closely, and not until they need to rely on it. Loss of rent is one of the most important sections in your policy, and one of the easiest to misread.
Settle a tenancy quickly through mediation and it can feel like the sensible outcome for everyone involved, right up until you go to claim and find your policy doesn't read the way you assumed it would.
Key takeaway:
How a tenancy ends can matter to your insurer as much as why it ended. A mediated settlement and a Tribunal order aren't always treated the same for a loss of rent claim.
What loss of rent cover promises, and what it doesn't
Most landlord insurance policies will pay a set number of weeks of lost rent once a tenant stops paying and you've gone through the proper process to end the tenancy. The problem is that “proper process” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
The detail that matters sits in the policy schedule, not the summary your insurer sent you when you signed up: how arrears are defined, when the claim period is treated as starting, and whether cover requires a Tribunal order, a mediated settlement, or either. Three policies that all promise “loss of rent cover” can pay out very differently once you look at the wording underneath.
Mediation gets you out fast. Your insurer might read it differently.
Mediation through Tenancy Services is often the quickest way to end a messy tenancy, and it's easy to see why landlords lean on it. It's faster and cheaper than a Tribunal hearing, and both sides agree the terms rather than have a decision handed down.
The catch is that some policies treat a mediated agreement differently to a Tribunal order. If your policy specifies cover applies on a Tribunal order for possession or rent arrears, a mediated settlement where you and the tenant simply agree to part ways might not meet that bar, even though the outcome for you looks the same: an empty property and lost income.
Old policy wording, current tenancy law
The Residential Tenancies Act had a significant update in 2021, changing notice periods, grounds for ending a tenancy, and how disputes are resolved. Plenty of landlord insurance policies were written before that update and haven't been reissued with new wording since.
If your policy still refers to processes or timeframes that don't match how tenancies are ended under current law, that gap sits quietly in your paperwork until the moment you need to make a claim, and only then does it become your problem. For Canterbury landlords who've owned a rental for a few years or more, it's worth checking even if you've never had a dispute. Cover that read fine in 2019 might not match how things work in 2026.
Three things worth checking before you need to
• What your policy pays for loss of rent, and for how long
• Whether a mediated agreement is treated the same as a Tribunal order for claims purposes
• Whether your policy wording still reflects the current Residential Tenancies Act, or an older version of it
We're not insurance advisers, and none of this replaces reading your policy properly or talking to your broker. But we've managed enough tenancy disputes to know this gap catches landlords out more often than it should. If you'd like a second set of eyes on how your policy is worded, get in touch with the Birds Nest team and we'll talk it through with you.
Disclaimer: Please note that the content provided in this article is intended as an overview and as general information only. While care is taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, the information provided is subject to continuous change and may not reflect current developments or address your situation. Before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article, please use your discretion and seek independent guidance.
