While there is plenty of industry focus on helping landlords better protect themselves and their property from potential claims from tenants, the majority of renters continue to take major risks when it comes to their own belongings, according to new research.

Most landlords possess comprehensive landlords insurance that covers them against damage to their property, which means that, for example, the landlord’s property would be insured and he or she would get money for the loss of the building. However, this often does not cover tenants, which means that their contents may not be covered.

Consequently, a tenant could lose all of their belongings and get nothing back if they have not acquired contents insurance, which means that they are taking a big gamble with their personal items if their property is broken into or damaged.

A YouGov poll survey, commissioned by Paymentshield, found that 54% of those living in a rented property do not have contents insurance.

Some 16% of tenants surveyed said they had suffered a fire, flood, theft, burst water pipe, lost keys or damage to their or their landlord’s belongings in the last 12 months.

Paymentshield’s head of business development, Rana Ali, commented: “What these figures capture is the vulnerability of renters to financial disaster, either due to not being covered by a tenants’ contents insurance policy in the first place, or by not being aware of what exactly a policy covers them for and when policyholders are eligible for compensation.”

The research also revealed that 39% of renters do not feel confident when it comes to understanding what services contents insurance products provide, and 41% feel they are not  confident enough that they’d have the right knowledge to buy the right contents insurance policy.

Ali added: “Despite relatively high levels of anxiety, many renters seem to falsely believe that nothing will ever actually damage their belongings. But detrimental events such as floods do happen, and, unfortunately, are becoming commonplace in the UK. Paying out of pocket to cover the cost of such damage could effectively wipe out people’s life savings.

“We call on insurers and every party within the lettings chain – from landlords to tenant referencing firms – to go further in raising awareness both with current and prospective tenants on the value of contents insurance and the conditions for making a claim.”