Home insurance for your rental home

Read on and understand why home insurance for your rental home is important.

09:19 27 June 2013

If you have a home you’re renting out to other people, getting home insurance for your property would be a very good investment decision.

Landlords usually spend time interviewing renters to get an idea on their background. Landlords would like to make sure that these people will take good care of their house. But is a 1 to 2 hour interview enough? Will this give you an assurance that your tenants are responsible? Perhaps not.

To protect you from unexpected expenses should your house is burned down or damaged while you’re renting it out to other people, get it insured. Unlike traditional home insurance, this one usually does not offer coverage for content as those belong to your tenant.

One thing that you need to know about this type of insurance is that insurance companies will not honour claims if the damage occurred when the house is vacant for more than 30 days.

This could be a big problem if your tenants frequently go out of town for a very long period of time without informing you. It can also work against you if you’re in between renters. Sometimes, landlords have to wait for weeks or even months before they find new renters after the old ones move out.