By David Lawrenson

Getting a call on a cold night from a tenant to say their boiler has broken and can you get someone to fix it can be a problem.

At moments like these, you may start wishing you had taken out one of those service contracts where a nice man comes whizzing down to fix it pronto. But would you be right?

Most landlords tend to opt for getting buildings insurance with their lender. Often, their policy might include a home emergency insurance product included as a free add-on or as a cheap bolt on product thrown in for a few pounds a month.

Many property owners who have bought home emergency services this way, may not even realise they have the cover, so as the cold weather comes, it can be a useful exercise to just check out what you are already covered for anyway.
If you already have it included as part of your buildings insurance policy, this can be cheap because claims incidences on these "bolt on products" are low - not because incidences that give rise to a claim don't occur but because lots of people have simply forgotten they are already covered!