Landlords can best protect their Chula Vista rental properties with good maintenance, routine inspections, consistent tenant screening, and insurance.
Your landlord policy will ensure you’re protected against liability, catastrophes, and loss of rent.
The coverage you buy yourself doesn’t necessarily extend to your tenants and their belongings. This is why renters insurance is so important. If you’re wondering whether you should require it, the short answer is a simple yes.
Renters insurance is an affordable and easy way to bring tenants protection and peace of mind. It’s important that tenants buy their own insurance to cover their possessions as well as any risk that can come from accidents or disasters.
Renters Insurance for Chula Vista Tenants
A renters insurance policy often includes two things:
- Liability coverage
- Protection for a tenant’s personal belongings if they need to be repaired or replaced after a covered loss.
Sometimes, there is also coverage available for additional living expenses in case the rental property becomes temporarily uninhabitable. Damage may occur that’s accidental, but if someone gets hurt or something needs to be replaced, the insurance a tenant holds can reduce their risk.
Coverage Provided by Renters Insurance
The most important thing for most tenants is the coverage provided to their personal property. Tenants are often under the misconception that if something happens to damage their belongings, the landlord will pay for it.
However, that’s not true. If a pipe explodes and damages the house or a tree falls through a window and takes out some valuable electronics, the renters insurance policy will cover the cost to replace or repair those things. A landlord’s insurance policy will not cover those items. Under a landlord policy, liability and the structure of the home is covered; a tenant’s personal property is not. So, your tenant needs a renters policy to make sure they don’t suffer a major loss if something happens at the home.
The renters policy will also cover liability, and that benefits landlords as well as tenants.
If a tenant accidentally leaves the water on in a bathtub and a flood ensues, damaging floors and walls, the renters insurance policy will cover the repairs that are necessary. This will save the tenant from a lot of out-of-pocket expenses, protect their security deposit, and provide some relief to you as the landlord.
The policy also provides help with expenses if that flood requires a tenant to move into a hotel for a few days while the damage is repaired. Everyone is afforded some extra peace of mind when a renters insurance policy is in place.
Renters Insurance is Affordable
It shouldn’t be too hard of a sell when you inform your tenants of this requirement. After all, it’s very inexpensive. The cost of renters insurance is typically less than $20 per month for full coverage. Make sure you are listed as an additional insured as the landlord. This will protect everyone under one policy and ensure the landlord is notified if coverage lapses or changes.
Renters insurance is critical to both tenants and landlords. If you’d like to hear more about how we handle this, please contact us at Encore Realty.
