The thing that goes wrong with supported housing landlord insurance is almost never the premium. It is the disclosure. Under the Insurance Act 2015, the insured must make a fair presentation of the risk before the contract is entered into, disclosing every material circumstance they know or ought to know, in a manner that would be reasonably clear to a prudent insurer. Letting a property to a supported housing provider is a material circumstance. If the policy was written for a standard let and nobody told the insurer, the cover is exposed at exactly the moment it is needed.
That is the whole of this article in one paragraph. The rest of it is about who you have to tell, in what order, and which of those conversations has to happen before the lease is signed rather than after.
What a landlord has to sort before letting to a supported housing provider
Three consents and one contract term. Tell the buildings insurer the actual use and get the policy endorsed or replaced. Get written consent to let from the mortgage lender. Get freeholder or head-lessee consent where the title requires it. Then check which party the lease makes responsible for insuring, and for what.
Why the insurer treats it as a different risk
An ordinary buy to let policy is priced around an assumed occupancy: a household on an assured shorthold tenancy, one set of keys, a landlord who visits occasionally. A supported housing arrangement differs on several axes at once. Occupancy is by room rather than by household. Turnover is higher, sometimes much higher in transitional accommodation. Staff attend the property, in some models around the clock. Residents may be placed by a local authority under a statutory duty rather than choosing the property. And the occupancy agreement is often a licence rather than a tenancy.
None of that makes a property uninsurable. Insurers write this class of business routinely. What it does mean is that the risk the insurer agreed to carry is not the risk actually sitting in the house, and that mismatch is a disclosure problem rather than a pricing one.
The duty of fair presentation, in plain terms
Section 3 of the Insurance Act 2015 sets a positive duty. You disclose every material circumstance you know or ought to know, or at minimum give the insurer enough information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to ask more. Doing it in a way that is reasonably clear and accessible matters too: burying the use in an attachment is not a fair presentation.
The Act also says what you do not have to volunteer in the absence of enquiry. You need not disclose a circumstance that diminishes the risk, one the insurer knows, ought to know or is presumed to know, or one as to which the insurer has waived information. In practice none of those exemptions will rescue a landlord who simply never mentioned supported housing use, because the insurer neither knew nor ought to have known.
The honest summary is that non-disclosure is the risk you can actually control. Whether an insurer would have charged more is their commercial judgment. Whether you told them is a matter of record.
What to tell the insurer
Before the lease starts, give the insurer or broker the real picture in writing. That means the intended use, the client group in general terms, whether occupancy is by tenancy or licence, whether support staff attend and how often, whether there is any overnight staffing, who will be managing the property day to day, and whether the property will be occupied on a room-by-room basis.
Ask the insurer to confirm three things in return, in writing. That the policy is written for the disclosed use. Whether the malicious damage and accidental damage positions change under this occupancy. And how the policy treats unoccupied periods, which matters more in supported housing than in a single-household let because voids between placements are a normal part of the model rather than an exception.
Loss of rent cover deserves a specific question rather than an assumption, because the way rent flows in supported housing is not the way it flows in a standard let. If you are still working through how the rent is funded, our guide to what exempt accommodation is and how supported housing rent is funded explains the mechanism.
Consent to let from the mortgage lender
If there is a mortgage on the property, the terms of that mortgage govern what you may do with it. A residential mortgage generally does not permit letting at all without the lender’s written consent to let. A buy to let mortgage permits letting, but frequently on terms: many are written around a single assured shorthold tenancy to a single household, and letting on a room-by-room basis or to a company on a lease is outside that.
The practical point is that consent to let is not a formality to be sorted later. A lease to a provider is a lease, and granting one in breach of the mortgage conditions is a breach whether or not anybody notices. Ask the lender specifically about a lease to a supported housing provider, about the length of that lease, and about occupancy by licence rather than tenancy. Get the answer in writing and keep it with the lease.
Lenders also sometimes make consent conditional on the landlord holding a particular type of insurance, which is why these two conversations are better run together than in sequence.
Freeholder and head-lease consent
Where the property is leasehold, the lease itself may restrict subletting, restrict use, or require the freeholder’s consent before either. Flats and converted houses are the common cases. Some leases also contain a covenant about use as a single private dwelling, which a room-by-room supported housing arrangement may not satisfy.
This is the consent most often skipped, because the freeholder is not asking anyone for anything and nothing appears to go wrong. It surfaces later, usually when the building insurance is arranged at block level and the insurer of the block discovers a use it was not told about. If there is a head lease in the chain, read the alienation and user clauses before you agree heads of terms with a provider.
Who the lease makes responsible for insuring
In most arrangements the owner continues to insure the building and the provider insures its own contents, its liabilities as an occupier and its employer’s liability. That is a sensible default, but it is a default, not a rule, and the lease is what decides it.
Four things are worth naming explicitly in the document rather than leaving to the standard wording. Which party insures the structure. Which party carries property owner’s liability and which carries public liability for the activity in the house. Whether the provider must notice the owner’s insurer of anything that affects the risk, and within what period. And what happens to the insurance obligation during a void.
The rest of the responsibility split, including the physical condition and compliance obligations that sit alongside insurance, is set out in our guide to what landlords take on when leasing a property to a supported housing provider. The standards the building itself has to meet are covered separately in our note on the standards a property must meet in supported accommodation, and the cost side is in our guide to council tax and utility bills in supported accommodation.
The order to do it in
Run it in this sequence and nothing gets stranded. Read the title and the mortgage conditions first, because they are the constraints you cannot negotiate. Approach the lender for consent to let on the specific arrangement proposed. Approach the insurer or broker with the full disclosure at the same time, since the lender may make consent conditional on cover. Obtain freeholder or head-lessee consent if the title requires it. Only then agree heads of terms, and have the insurance obligations written into the lease rather than assumed.
Doing it in that order costs a few weeks at the front. Doing it in the other order costs a claim.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell my insurer the property is let to a supported housing provider?
Yes. Under section 3 of the Insurance Act 2015 you must make a fair presentation of the risk before the contract is entered into, disclosing every material circumstance you know or ought to know. The use of the property and the way it is occupied are material circumstances. Disclose them in writing and keep the insurer’s confirmation.
Will standard landlord insurance cover a supported living let?
Not reliably. A policy written for a single household on an assured shorthold tenancy is priced for that occupancy. Room-by-room occupancy, staff attendance, higher turnover and placements made by a local authority are all differences the insurer would want to know about. Ask for the policy to be written for the disclosed use rather than assuming an existing one stretches.
Do I need consent to let from my mortgage lender?
If you have a residential mortgage, almost certainly. If you have a buy to let mortgage, check the conditions, because many are written around a single tenancy to a single household and a lease to a provider with room-by-room occupancy sits outside that. Ask the lender about the specific arrangement and get the answer in writing.
Who insures the building, the landlord or the provider?
Usually the landlord insures the structure and the provider insures its contents and its own liabilities, but this is decided by the lease rather than by any rule. Name it explicitly in the document, along with who carries liability cover for the activity in the house and what happens to the obligation during a void.
Talk to the team
If you are weighing up a lease and want to know exactly what we take on and what stays with you, we will set it out plainly before you approach a lender or an insurer, so you can disclose accurately first time. Our property compliance service covers the obligations we manage, our page for landlord partners covers the arrangement itself, and you can get in touch with a specific property in mind.
Written by the Haven Living Group team. Published 24 September 2026. Last updated 24 September 2026.
This article is general information about the consents and disclosures involved in letting a property, not insurance, mortgage or legal advice. Your own policy wording, mortgage conditions and title documents govern your position.