Water is the single most common cause of insurance claims in privately rented accommodation.

It regularly accounts for some 40% of settlements - at nearly £2,000 per claim.

And, as the UK’s private sector landlords head towards winter, now is the time to protect property through one of the highest risk periods of the year.

“Low cost insurance is one of the major benefits of RLA membership but that’s beside the point,” says Lee Dribben, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association - whose members own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK. “Prevention is better than cure because behind every insurance claim lies inconvenience and hassle that everyone can do without.”

So landlords are urged to follow the RLA’s 10-point winter checklist to avoid problems before they arise.

1          Schedule an autumn inspection of your properties – and, while you’re at it, check gas safety, fire alarms and extinguishers.

• Have heating systems and boilers checked, if necessary, by an accredited professional.

• Pay special attention to cold roof spaces.

4          Make sure tanks and pipes are properly protected by lagging, jackets, heating or whatever is necessary to ward off frost and ice. Burst pipes are the No. 1 cause of insurance claims. 

5          Check gutters and downpipes for blockages that can cause water to overflow and enter the building structure.

6          Make sure you – and tenants – know where water stop-cock is – so water can be turned off as soon as possible to prevent further damage. It’s a good idea to know where the gas, electricity and central heating cut-off points are too.

7          Perhaps you should fix notices showing where they all are  (but warn tenants about turning freezers off, over a holiday, if they are leaving food inside.)

8          Better still – take advantage of automation. Consider fitting a cut-off system that detects the sort of drop in water pressure that you would get with a burst pipe and automatically turns off the water supply. And add a thermostat to the heating boiler so it turns on automatically at low temperature or if there's a frost. 

9          Educate and advise your tenants. They are not always diligent about taking precautions – either because they regard home maintenance as a landlord problem or because, especially with student lets, they are young with different lifestyles and priorities. But even for tenants there are basic requirements – especially if they go home and leave properties unoccupied with pipes freezing over Christmas.
 
10        If the property is empty for a prolonged cold period set the heating system to run at minimum temperature to prevent frost damage.

“Christmas is for family,” says Lee Dribben, “not for wrestling with a burst water pipe and a flooded house. If you think ahead you can cut down the threat."