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Direct Line: Landlord Insurance reviews

Name: Landlord Insurance
Rating: 3.02 (41 reviews)

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2.66

Based on 41 reviews, last reviewed 8th Oct 2024

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

100% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

37%

17%

2 star

44%

Latest highest rating:

4

A bit disappointed the huge increase in premium year... A bit disappointed the huge increase in premium year on year particularly as I had no claims. Needs to be looked into more as it feels very "Cowboyish... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd August 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

Direct Line promise 4 hours I waited 72 hours I was persuaded to take out a landlord home emergency insurance by a Direct Line Insurance advertisement on the radio promising a qualified engineer a... Read more Reviewed on: 8th October 2024

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About this product

Does Direct Line landlord insurance do a good job protecting your property? Read and write our Smart Money People Direct Line landlord insurance reviews and you will help other landlords to find the best landlord insurance policies on the market.

Direct Line Landlord Insurance reviews (41)

Review of the Direct Line, Landlord Insurance:

Direct Line promise 4 hours I waited 72 hours

I was persuaded to take out a landlord home emergency insurance by a Direct Line Insurance advertisement on the radio promising a qualified engineer attending the emergency within 4 hours. I thought it was a good idea to give my tenants peace of mind and spent approx £ 1700 per year. In the three years I was with them I had 4 emergencies. They never turned up withing the 4 hours promise. In one emergency a tenant had notice a few drops of water falling down from the boiler I was contacted by the tenant and immediately I registered the emergency with their call handlers. I was phoned back after half an hour and was told that, they did not have an engineer to attend the job but could get one the following morning. I phoned the tenant to notify about an engineer turning up the following day and also asked them to check if the boiler was still working. They run the hot water, the boiler fired up and the running water was hot. I asked the tenant to turn the boiler off for precaution. The following day no engineer turned up at the same time the the water escaping from the boiler had increased so much the tenant had to put buckets underneath to minimise the flooding of the kitchen. I rang again to complain about the engineer not showing up and was promised another engineer for the following day. the same happened again. The engineer did not turn up! I rang again and was promised yet again another engineer for the following day. The engineer turned up that was 72 hours later from registering the emergency 68 hours later than their 4 hours promise. The only thing the engineer did was to write the boiler off as unrepairable and the reason was the electrical had got wet so I was left with a £ 2400 for a new boiler. At the beginning was only the odd drop and the boiler was still working had they come within the 4 hours the boiler could have been rescued this was said by the engineer that fitted the new boiler. Their engineer lied on the report saying he had worked on the outside flue. The tenant said that, he never went outside, it was just a way to cover their failure the company managing Direct Line landlords policies is DAS Legal Expenses while the company managing the repairs is called CET in fact CET is also dealing with complaints, they never accepts full liability they just offer you between £ 100 to £ 200 to go away the only thing they accepted is that, they have given me a below the standard service which I would describe as terrible service. Direct Line never gets involved with the complaints although they have mis-sold the insurance policy to me, shockingly they still show on the website that, a qualified engineer will attend the emergency within 4 hours. They have no shame! Reviewed on: 8th October 2024

Read The Small Print Carefully - Buyer Beware

I have Land Lords Insurance with Direct Line and my tenants had a problem whilst I was away on holiday and so they contacted the local Register Safe Gas plumber that services and repairs the property. The heating system had failed and the plumber had to locate the problem - the plumbers had to check all the heating pipes for leaks and this meant lifting floors and replacing tanks and equipment a process of elimination - eventually the plumber found that a coil inside a tank had failed - anyway I reported the problem to Direct Line in arriving back and they said to contact them again once the work has been completed. A few weeks later the invoice arrived and I rang Direct Line - their response was that they will pay for any secondary water damage but locating and fixing the leak wasn’t covered. The fact that my tenant managed to quickly locate the local plumber prevented the damage. I asked them about the advert on tv showing Direct Line coming to the rescue of a Landlord was intact he had the upgraded 5 star cover and not the standard cover they had provided to me. So be warned - Read you renewal carefully Direct Line only under certain conditions cover plumbing emergency breakdowns. We won’t be renewing the insurance cover in this or any other properties we have. David Netherway Reviewed on: 25th November 2019

Reasonable premiums for 4 yrs ..now a 430 % increase - don't stay with these rogues !!

Had a landlords policy paying about £140 for buildings only policy , this went up to £166 over 4 years which was reasonable - until 2018 they asked for £876 !!! ( and never made a claim ) Asked to explain their greedy hike ..they replied that the Environmental Agency were to blame as they had now put the property in the risk of flood catergory ! Did they have the honesty , courtesy or balls to tell me this in any correspondence before the renewal ??? No flipping chance - Be warned !! ( this case is ongoing ) Reviewed on: 20th December 2018

Neither I nor my agent kept informed!

I bought Landlord insurance and paid the extra for Legal Expenses. My tenant defaulted on his rent payment, so I activated the legal department and informed them from an early stage that there may be problems. As the property is fully managed, I nominated my "agent" to deal with matters on my behalf. Direct Line Legal are a firm called "DWF" based at Bristol; they have repeatedly failed to keep me or my agents informed of what is happening. Because my tenant is in the property but not paying me any money, this is resulting in considerable financial hardship not to mention worry and anxiety for myself! AVOID this firm if you feel you should be kept informed at the very least; and want everything to proceed at acceptable speed. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR LANDLORDS! Reviewed on: 5th September 2018

they are cowboys

find the smallest excuse not to honour a claim, keep well away from this company Reviewed on: 6th April 2018

Competitive, quality insurance

Great value insurance at competitive prices with all my policys in one place. Reviewed on: 2nd October 2017

Good

Good telephone service and simple to understand features. Reviewed on: 30th September 2017

Gives me what I need as a landlord

Provides a good insurance package and was very affordable compared to others Reviewed on: 29th September 2017

Straight forward contact and product

U.K. Call centres, freephone, good communication and friendly staff. Insurance quotes in general need to stop going up year on year by 10/15 pounds but, at least this company doesn't take forever to haggle and this is why I use them for most of my insurance needs at this present time. Reviewed on: 28th September 2017

Competitive

Competitive cover from a brand leader that gets what landlords need. Reviewed on: 10th September 2017

Good price

Good price from a trusted name. Have only had one small claim a few months ago and it was handled better than I expected to be honest. Reviewed on: 10th September 2017

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