Six landlords offer tenants cheap home contents insurance

Chesterfield, Milton Keynes, St Albans, Southwark and Waveney councils and London-based Habinteg Housing Association have launched schemes providing household contents and personal liability insurance for only a little more than £1 a week.

The move is a response to housing providers' fears that tenants are failing to take out home contents insurance in the mistaken belief that the landlord will cover any loss.

Kate Sparrow, assistant company secretary at Habinteg, said: "There was the problem of people not having insurance and asking us to claim off our insurance. They did not realise they weren't covered by our buildings insurance.

"We are also doing it to provide another service to our tenants."

She said 10 tenants had signed up in the first month, putting Habinteg's scheme on target to sign up 60 tenants in the first year.

The scheme, run by insurance broker Thomas Winter, is already used by 42 local authorities and housing associations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus 7000 social housing tenants in Scotland.

Thomas Winter, which was recently acquired by broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson, hopes the scheme will encourage tenants to get their own contents cover.

Michael Graham, regional managing director of Jardine Lloyd Thompson, said: "Although it is clear where the responsibility lies for most of the costs of everyday life, it is still difficult to persuade tenants that only they can cover themselves through insurance."

  Tenants can pay premiums in a number of ways including at the post office.