Written evidence from Legal and General (NDS0002)
- What is Legal & General’s policy on offering insurance to landlords who have tenants claiming benefits?
Legal & General (L&G) provides landlord insurance both as an underwriter directly and via delegated underwriting authority arrangements known as MGAs (managing general agents). For non-MGA business the acceptance of DSS tenants is summarised below:
- L&G does not have any policy that prohibits offering insurance where the occupants / tenants are claiming benefits.
- L&G landlord products are only available where both the landlord and the tenant are private individuals. No product is available where the property is owned by or let to a housing association, local authority or limited company.
- Provided the tenant is a private individual, their employment status (including unemployed and/or receiving benefits) does not affect the availability of our insurance
For MGA: each MGA is an individual business and follows their own policy exclusions across multiple policies or schemes they underwrite. However, all the MGAs with whom we contract do offer insurance for properties with DSS tenants. In general they have wider risk acceptance than our directly-underwritten business including limited companies as policyholders and broad tenant acceptance such as asylum seekers and houses in multiple occupation.
- If Legal & General does have restrictions on insurance for landlords with tenants in receipt of benefits, might you please outline the reasoning behind this and how you have satisfied yourselves that these restrictions do not constitute unlawful discrimination?
Not applicable.
March 2019