Landlord Insurance
Landlords need to insure their property. If you own residential property that you rent to others to live in, then you are a landlord. Landlord insurance helps protect your investment from several types of mishaps.
Landlord insurance is property and casualty insurance. It is for people who own residential property that they rent out to tenants. This doesn’t apply to people who live in a house, and rent a room in that house to someone else.
So Needs this Coverage?
A landlord policy is for anyone who rents out property they own. It could be an apartment, house, condo or town home. If you live on the property for a few months, but rent it out most of the time, then you are considered a landlord.
How it Works
This type of policy is different from a homeowners or condo insurance policy. The landlord insurance is only concerned with insuring the property. Tenants must insure their own personal property. So a landlord policy covers the structure as well as other structures on the property. It protects the landlord against physical loss as well as liability. It does not cover the tenants.
Types of Coverage
Landlord policies are similar, but they have variations based on what properties they are insuring. A policy for a multi-unit apartment building will have some different coverage and exclusions than for a single-family rental house. Some landlord policies also cover loss of use as a standard part of the policy, but others may require the landlord to purchase that as an addition.
Benefits
The purpose of landlord insurance is to protect the landlord’s investment. Without it, a serious fire or other mishap could cause a person to lose their entire income.