What to know before you buy a rental property
A Guied TO Landlord Insurance

Landlords must protect themselves when renting out properties. Homeowner’s insurance isn’t enough. It won’t cover damages to a home if the home isn’t occupied by the owners. You must be honest with your insurance company about how you’re using the home and if you’re renting it out, you need landlord insurance.
What is Landlord Insurance?
Landlord insurance covers damages to the home or someone on the property when you’re renting it out to tenants.
You can purchase landlord property protection, liability protection, and extra coverage for things like vandalism, burglary, or construction coverage.
Rental property insurance works just like homeowner’s insurance, but it protects a home you don’t live in yourself.
What Does it Cover?
Like homeowner’s insurance, there are many forms of rental property insurance to choose from, but here are the most common forms of coverage.
Dwelling and Property Coverage
Like homeowner’s insurance, this protects your property from natural disasters including fire, storms, tornadoes, vandalism, or even damage caused by your tenants. You can choose from replacement cost coverage or actual cash value coverage. Replacement cost covers the full cost to rebuild the home or replace items at today’s costs. Actual cost value only covers the depreciated value of the structure or items.
Liability Coverage
If someone gets hurt on your property, the costs could become your liability, not the tenant’s responsibility. Liability coverage helps cover the cost of the damages and takes the financial responsibility off your shoulders.
Loss of Use
If your home is completely rendered unlivable, loss of use coverage reimburses you for lost rent temporarily. This is important if your home is destroyed by a fire, has rodent infestation, or a tornado makes it unlivable.
What Landlord Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Landlord insurance doesn’t cover everything that could happen to your home or property, though. Here are a few things it doesn’t cover:
Appliance Breakdowns
If appliances stop working, they are your responsibility. The only time appliances would be covered is if they are part of a natural disaster that your insurance covers.
Personal Property
Rental property insurance doesn’t cover your tenant’s personal belongings. It’s a good idea to require your tenants to carry renter’s insurance when they rent your property. It’s inexpensive and invaluable for tenants.
Floods or Earthquakes
If the property is in a flood zone or prone to earthquakes, you’ll need a separate policy to cover these issues, just like standard homeowner’s insurance. Talk to your insurance agent about your need for these coverage options.
Final Thoughts
Landlord insurance is important for all landlords and will be required if you have financing on the property. Don’t assume you are covered only to find out after an incident that you aren’t. Get the coverage you need to protect your investment in the property.
It adds to the cost of owning an investment property, but it’s an expense that should be included in your budget to ensure you have a property to rent out and aren’t left financially unstable because of a loss.








