Landlord Insurance Claims

Landlord Insurance Claims

Being a landlord is not always about sitting back and receiving rent from your tenants. There are bad days when the landlord finds themselves in a heap of trouble with the tenants. It’s never easy to handle and deal with the diverse personalities of all the people you rent out the properties. As a landlord, you have to be content with the fact that you can one day wake up to find your entire apartment razed to the ground by a fire.

You can also never tell when there will be a natural disaster like, a major earthquake that will lead to wanton damage to your valuable asset. In such instances, you don’t want to have to go back to your bank account or wallet to pay for the restoration of your income-generating asset. It is much better for you to anticipate such risks and take comprehensive landlord insurance on all your properties.

Why Take Additional Coverage?

Normally, the landlord has the safeguard of having a deposit from the tenants. With that money, the property owner can pay for any deliberate and accidental damage by the leaseholders. Many-a-times, however, the discount is never enough to meet the costs of repairing and renovating the premises to the desired state once the tenants vacate.

That’s when landlord insurance comes in to gladly save the day due to a covered loss for you, as the entrepreneurs. Landlord insurance comes in handy when there’s been a fire or a break-in at the rented properties.

In addition, this insurance is meant to protect the landowner from being culpable to any damages and injuries ensuing from severe weather. In a nutshell, this coverage provides you with the finances to spruce up your property, as a landlord, to a habitable state after a tenant moves out.

Property Insurance Policies Types

Property owners are expected to mitigate the risks of having to deal with the at-times, unruly clients by taking out one or more of the following types of landlord insurance:-

Dwelling Property-1 (DP1)

DP1 insurance is without a doubt the cheapest form of insurance a landlord can take out. The cover protects the owners from numerous perils that are bound to occur in this line of business. Take out the DP1 policy and never have to worry about losing your rental property income as a result of perils such as civil unrest, riots, adverse weather, fire and even lightning. The DP1 insurance is calculated by factoring in the depreciation values of the insured properties and assets.

Dwelling Property-2 (DP2)

This type of coverage is a bit more comprehensive as compared to the DP-1 option. In addition to compensating the clients in the event of the above-mentioned perils and risks, the DP-2 cover also extends to offer protection against electrical damages, frozen pipes, broken or cracked pipes, water damage, and partial collapse of buildings and from snow and ice related mishaps.

Due to its added weight, this comprehensive insurance costs more than its predecessor, the DP-2. But, it’s prudent to cough up a few extra dollars as a landlord, and live with the guarantee that you’ll be safe and secure in the event of any of the above risks that are commonplace and mostly, inevitable.

Dwelling Property-3

This insurance cover happens to be the most expensive of the three insurance types. The higher-than-normal costs are warranted as the cover kicks in to save your day, as a landlord, in the event that any of your tenants fails to meet their rent obligations for one reason or the other. Clients get reimbursed on all replacement costs under this particular coverage plan.

It is important to emphasize that there are many coverage options you, as the landlord, can work with to safeguard your financial interests and peace of mind. You have several types of insurance coverage options at your disposal, as a consumer. The most common categories of landlord insurance coverage include:-

Liability Insurance

As a landlord, you’ll always be glaring right in the face of unending lawsuits. There’s no way you can escape being sued by that aggrieved tenant no matter how much you try. As a wise property owner or manager, you’re better off having an insurance cover to help offset the exorbitant costs associated with having to clear your name in the courts of law after you get wrongly accused of failing to meet and honor your obligations as a landlord by your tenants.

What’s more, this insurance covers all financial costs arising from legal fees, judgment and settlement costs, funeral costs and medical payments associated with tenants who’d you’d leased your properties.

Get the liability insurance coverage for landlords and you’ll never have to worry about a leaky water pipe damaging your tenants’ expensive memorabilia and they sue you for compensation on the same.

We recommend contacting Shield Public Adjusters before sealing with insurance adjusters. As licensed Public Adjusters we are ready to help at any time

Property Damage

This landlord insurance coverage protects you from any liabilities in the off, but the real, chance that your rental units get burned down or devastated by adverse weather. The coverage also extends to cater for losses ensuing from burglary, vandalism and all manner of tenant damages as well.

Loss of Income

This coverage covers the landlord in the event that the tenant moves out and thereby denying the owner the income from rent. The tenant may be leaving the property for a myriad of reasons that include, water damage, fire, or in the event of the death of the tenant. With this insurance, the owner will receive income compensation from the insurers until they get another paying tenant at their properties.

Saving on Homeowners Insurance

As a landlord, it makes perfect economic sense for you to select an affordable, albeit solid insurance cover. Ideally, the higher the premiums, the better and more comprehensive the coverage and the vice-versa is true as well. Many owners often assume the essence of taking out such covers. These property owners leave everything to chance and they simply live with the hope that nothing bad will happen to their tenants and properties.

Covered Loss 

While it is possible that you can pay for landlord insurance for years without getting any compensation, there’s no sense in living a life of constant fear of what might happen. If you are as unfortunate as to have your property burn down or damaged by adverse weather and you didn’t have any coverage, there’s an excellent likelihood that you’ll struggle for years, even longer, to get that income generating asset to its original shape and form.

To avoid spending a fortune on the premiums, you are advised to liaise with astute insurance experts and other landlords to help you figure out the most competitive insurance coverage for your properties.

Here are a few other interesting ideas on how you, as the landlord, can get to save cash on your insurance deductibles.

Bundling up policies is always a clever strategy used to reduce the overall amount of money you’ll pay for the coverage. Virtually all insurance companies will be glad to offer you a massive discount once you purchase several types of insurance from their shop.

Therefore, it is prudent you select an insurance company that has a wide barrage of insurance covers all under one roof. Then, purchase all your relevant insurance from the company and you’ll most certainly score incredible discounts that will serve to save you heck a lot of cash moving forward.

In as much as most of the accidents and incidents outlined in this post are unpredictable, it makes sense for you to add safety features on your personal property. Take the preemptive steps to lower the risks of your condo or apartment burning down by having fire extinguishers set up in convenient and easily accessible locations at the premises.

What’s more, you should reach out to the professional water damage and restoration experts and ask them to come over and help waterproof your property. Other highly recommended safety measures include, you putting up smoke detectors, surveillance cameras, and even state-of-the-art burglary systems at your property to reduce the risks. It is important to note that, if you put up proper safety measures, the insurance company will consider you to be a low-risk client and consequently they will offer you favorable premiums.

It is in your best interests, as the landlord, to ensure you compare and contrast as many landlord renters insurance quotes as possible before making a final decision. The worst mistake that many insurance-seeking consumers take is that of selecting the first seemingly promising company that comes their way.

For a chance to make mega-savings on your insurance needs and wants, you’ll have to remain patient as you analyze the rates and estimates you get from a broad cross-section of accredited firms. If you get stuck in the middle, don’t panic; instead, use referrals from other property owners to get connected to a reliable and trusted service provider.

Protect Your Investment 

Renting properties is a superb avenue of earning you a tidy residual income. The investment, however, comes with its fair share of challenges to you as the landlord. You run the real risk of property damage from acts of nature like, tornadoes, earthquakes, riots and hurricanes. As a landlord, you have to be prepared for eventualities like, your tenants maliciously damaging your assets, robbers breaking in and making away with all your valuables and risks like, the place getting flooded in water after the sewers burst.

There are other dangers that can also rob you of the rental income and these include, your tenant getting sick and dying. In such instances, you are supposed to have taken out a proper insurance cover to mitigate these risks. Take out the landlord insurance coverage of your choice and you’ll be guaranteed of receiving full compensation in the unfortunate event that something goes awry in this line of business.