Brokers, listen up: There’s a range of new products you can sell as add-ons on top of standard home and landlord policies. A new market player based in Norwich has rolled out 10 products – with more to be launched next year – you could potentially recommend to customers.
The new offerings from start-up Inlet cover the main product areas of host insurance, house swap, landlord protection, and parking host. Target clients are those in the burgeoning sharing economy, such as Airbnb hosts.
“The sharing economy has really taken off in the last couple of years but what people don’t realise is that, in most cases, their standard home or landlord insurance policy won’t cover them for losses or their liability for these types of short-term letting activities – whether that’s letting a room in their house or renting out a parking space,” said former Arthur J Gallagher and Co-op Insurance head of pricing Louise Birritteri (pictured), who is behind the new firm.
To avail themselves of the add-ons, customers should have an existing annual home or landlord insurance policy with any provider. The products can be bought “on demand” either from a broker or via the Inlet website, by the day at a fixed daily price or for full-year protection. The host insurance product, for instance, retails from £1.50/day while the parking host add-on can be purchased for £1/day. Packages for 35 and 90 days’ cover are also available.
“Some insurance providers do offer a level of cover for these sorts of arrangements in annual policies but it often falls short of what the customer actually needs,” explained Birritteri. “It means that not only do they not have the right cover but they also end up having no choice but to pay over the odds for year-round insurance when, in most instances, they only need cover for a limited number of days a year.”
The new entrant is supported by UK General – which underwrites all the products – and Lexelle Limited.
“We’ll be able to help Inlet as a wholesaler and have developed a claims process to support it,” commented Lexelle managing director Sharon West. “This is a really exciting opportunity to develop a new claims process that cuts right across a number of GI product areas such as legal and liability expenses.”
UK General business development director Stephen Ekins, who said they are always keen to champion new and niche markets, noted: “Without a doubt, Inlet has identified an area of the market that is currently not catered for properly so we will work with them to try and develop the sector so that people operating in the shared economy can do so with a degree of appropriate protection at a fair price.”
“There is huge potential in this market sector and I would encourage brokers to look into it as it could provide a real safeguard for their clients, protecting them from future liabilities and losses,” said Birritteri.
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