We are talking today about rental home insurance and the first thing we would tell you is that it’s important to hire an insurance expert when you’re buying coverage for your property. You’ll also want to focus on liability coverage, replacement value and exclusions.
Liability Coverage
When you’re renting your home out to a tenant, avoid taking on someone else’s liability. You don’t want to let the tenant bring any liability to you. For example, don’t rent to anyone with a vicious dog breed. Don’t let anybody do work on your house who doesn’t have insurance. You never want to use an uninsured vendor because that guy pressure cleaning your roof could fall off the roof and injure himself. If he’s not insured and you hired him to work on your property, you’ll be paying his salary for a while.
Rental Home InsuranceReplacement Value
You always want to make sure your insurance covers the replacement value of your home. There is a big difference between the replacement value and coverage in a lesser amount. It isn’t worth gambling, so make sure you buy insurance that includes replacement value coverage.
Exclusions
Every insurance policy is going to have exclusions. For example, a regular policy won’t cover floods and it won’t cover someone getting hurt on a trampoline that you have in the backyard. It excludes home based businesses as well, so if you watch someone else’s children in your house and someone gets hurt, your insurance policy will not cover that and you’ll be carrying that burden on your own.
What you need to remember is that you shouldn’t take on someone else’s liability and you don’t want to gamble by not having replacement value coverage. Always hire an expert. Talk to your insurance agent and take his advice. That’s why you work with him.
If you have any questions about insurance, please contact us at Florida Management & Consulting Group. We’d be happy to tell you more.
Military: David Harper is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. As a Lieutenant he served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War (1968-1969) where he was a Casualty Staging Officer ( Aeromedical Evacuation). He was tasked with moving wounded Soldiers and Marines from Vietnam to various military hospitals in the theatre and eventually Stateside. After serving in several Air Force Reserve Units he was “called up” to serve in Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991) Where he was Chief Planner on the Central Command Staff for the Aeromedical Evacuation of all US Casualties during the pre-invasion and post-invasion phases. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1993. Currently he is the President of the Broward County Chapter of the Military Officer’s Association of America.
South Florida Property Manager Roger Schalk is a member of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM), and the Florida Association of Property Managers (FARPM). A real estate professional for 18 years he has spent his entire professional career managing and developing company’s and their employees in customer facing roles and has successfully established himself in Property Management.