There are likely to be occasions when any property - particularly residential lets - remains unoccupied. While having your property unoccupied impacts on rental income, and is therefore something landlords will naturally wish to minimise, there are additional considerations that apply in respect of security and insurance.

Clearly, you will wish to protect your property - especially with so many cannabis farms being put in houses by criminals, doing untold physical damage, which the landlord has to pay to repair. This means that you need to ensure that the premises are secure; including both doors and all accessible windows.

It is also important to consider who still has keys to the property, once tenants have left. If they gave keys to friends, it could well be worth replacing the door locks - this is far less expensive than dealing with squatters!

It is important to remember that most insurance policies will exclude damage resulting from the activities of malicious persons while property is left unoccupied for a period of more than 90 days. This will also apply to theft and accidental damage. In fact, it is important to let your insurance company know when the premises are likely to be left unoccupied for any sustained period of time, because they may wish to impose terms. While this could restrict your cover, failure to notify the insurance company might invalidate your insurance altogether in certain circumstances.

Furthermore, buildings occupied partly or in whole for commercial purposes, are likely to exclude cover while the premises are unoccupied unless the insurance company has been notified in writing. If your property is likely to be unoccupied for any period, it is good practice to take a few simple steps to minimise the risk. These will not just save the insurance company money, but will also serve to keep your premiums down ? not to mention helping you avoid considerable inconvenience:

• Inspect the buildings internally and externally as frequently as practicable, but at least every seven days ? or arrange for someone to do this on your behalf
• Take all reasonable security measures for the safety of the property, including that all doors, windows and other means of entry are secured with good quality locks. Your insurance broker will be able to advise you on this.
• Where possible, you should remove combustible materials (that are not fixed to the building) from the site.
• You should also turn off all sources of power, fuel or water (except those required to operate an approved sprinkler, alarm system or central heating system)

Reviewing your is always a good idea, but this should be done in the light of ensuring that adequate cover exists, at the right - but not necessarily the cheapest - cost.