Landlord Insurance

Your insurance needs are unique when you are responsible for multi-family housing units. You can’t just obtain a typical homeowner’s policy and expect it to provide for your comprehensive needs when it comes to safeguarding your assets, obtaining proper liability protection, and protecting against losses in rental income. What you need is known as landlord insurance, a type of business policy designed specifically for the needs of rental properties and their owners.

What Is Landlord Insurance?

Designed for real estate owners who possess one or more rental properties, landlord insurance protects your investment property against certain types of financial losses that are commonly associated with rental units. In particularly, it helps to protect rental property owners from losses incurred when a property becomes unusable for a period of time.

What Does Landlord Insurance Protect?

Most standard policies for landlords offer protection in each of the following types of situations:

• Legal disputes between a tenant and the landlord – covers the cost of any legal fees that are incurred
• Damage to the rental unit has rendered it uninhabitable – includes coverage for repairs as well as compensation for the loss of any rent while the repairs are being made

What Type of Coverage Does Standard Landlord Insurance Provide?

Typically, this type of policy covers your rental property for damage that occurs due to each of the following circumstances:

• Vandalism
• Theft of your personal property
• Damage to the property of your renters caused by your employees or contracted workers
• Medical costs incurred due to negligent behavior on the part of the landlord
• Legal costs incurred as the result of a law suit stemming from damage the landlord is held responsible for
• Damage due to normal weather activity, including high winds, snow, ice, hail, and lightning unless otherwise noted

What Kind of Coverage Can You Get with Landlord Insurance?

The exact type of coverage/compensation that you are entitled to as a landlord depends on the exact terms of your insurance policy. It is important to understand exactly what you are covered for in order to determine whether or not a policy offers you enough protection as a rental property owner.

Each of the following types of coverage is available when they are included in your policy and paid for by your premium:

• Property damage
• Loss of rental income
• Legal fees
• Libel
• Slander
• Discrimination

What Type of Coverage Does Landlord Insurance Provide?

In most cases, the following types of protection are not offered without the benefit of an umbrella policy:

• Water or sewer backup
• Flood
• Earthquake
• Hurricane
• Higher limits on personal liability