Our management agreement, and the management agreement of just about any reputable property management company, require the property owner to get an insurance policy for their rental property that is specially designed for rental properties and to name our company as an additional insured. Why is this important?
First, the importance of the policy itself is to protect you from liability. If you just have a regular homeowner's insurance policy, the insurer can typically deny any claims that arise while you are not occupying the property. So if the house burns to the ground while the tenant is living there, even if the tenant is not the cause of the fire, the insurer usually has an “out” to deny your claim, leaving you in a situation where the mortgage company can call your loan in full since they no longer have any collateral, or you have to pay out of pocket to rebuild the house. Obviously, this is not a good situation. A landlord insurance policy will cover this. Other liability that you want to have your insurance agent cover includes claims from a tenant if they get injured in the house, claims from neighbors if a tenant's dog bites them, etc. Generally, we recommend that you get at least $1 million in liability coverage for these issues, but ask your insurance agent if he might recommend something different.
Second, you'll want to make sure that we're named as an additional insured. This protects you from the insurer trying to deny a claim just because the property was under someone's management other than you directly, and it also protects us from the same liability that you are covering yourself for.
In addition to landlord insurance, we also require all of our tenants to have renter's insurance to cover their individual belongings. Our leases all state that we and the property owner are not responsible for the tenant's belongings, regardless of who is responsible for any damage or theft, so they have to have their own coverage to insure their belongings. This is additional protection for you.
To find out how to sign up for management services with us, please submit a form on this site, or give us a call!
