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What is Rental Property Insurance?
Massachusetts landlords who invest in properties need to protect themselves and their properties from a host of potential risks. Rental property insurance helps landlords shield themselves from covered potential lawsuits and safeguard their assets against covered possible losses.
Rental property insurance is a specialized insurance that’s uniquely designed to meet the needs of landlords who lease space in investment properties. Policies are generally available for residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Additionally, insurers often offer both single rental property and multiple rental property insurance policies.
Who in Massachusetts Needs a Rental Property Policy?
The vast majority of individuals and businesses who invest in Massachusetts properties that they lease ought to have a rental property policy. Leasing out space in buildings comes with inherent risks, and this is usually the best way to insure against many of those risks.
Landlords who own multiple properties should specifically seek out a multiple rental property insurance policy. This type of policy is particularly well-suited for insuring multiple buildings that may or may not be adjacent to one another, and it typically costs less than getting an individual policy for each building would be. An insurance agent who specializes in rental property policies can help landlords in this situation search for a multiple rental property insurance policy that offers robust coverage for all of their buildings.
What Coverages Are Included in a Rental Property Policy?
Rental property policies normally provide multiple coverages to help protect landlords from many different risks, but the exact coverages that they offer sometimes vary. Two main and more common protections are rental liability coverage and rental property coverage.
Rental liability coverage usually insures property owners against certain covered lawsuits that they might be named in. If a tenant or other party files a covered liability suit, this coverage will likely pay any legal fees and settlement associated with the claim.
Rental property coverage generally insures properties themselves against damage and destruction. If a property is damaged in a covered incident, a policy will probably provide compensation to repair or replace the building. How much coverage is afforded and what incidents are covered are determined by a policy’s terms and conditions.
In addition to these, policies frequently also make the following available:
• Loss of Income Coverage, which may provide supplemental payments if a property is uninhabitable following a disaster
• Rental Guarantee Coverage, which may provide supplemental payments if a tenant fails to make their rent payments
• Legal Assistance Coverage, which may pay some legal expenses that aren’t directly associated with a covered liability suit
A knowledgeable insurance agent can explain these coverages in more detail and see what other protections policies offer.
Do Rental Property Policies Include Workers Compensation?
Workers compensation generally provides protection for workplace injuries or illnesses that employees might sustain.
Although some landlords may want workers compensation for themselves or need it for their employees, this coverage usually isn’t included in rental property policies. Instead, workers compensation is normally procured through a separate policy that offers this one protection when the protection is needed.
How Much Do Rental Property Policies Cost?
Premiums for rental property policies vary about as much as properties themselves do. How much a particular policy costs can be influenced by many factors, frequently including:
• How many properties are insured by the policy
• Where the properties are located
• How many units each of the properties has
• How large each of the properties is
• What coverages and limits are selected
Even with the variance among premiums, however, these policies tend to be quite affordable. They almost certainly cost less than facing a major disaster with no protection in place might be.
How Can Landlords in Massachusetts Get Rental Property Insurance?
For help insuring rental properties in Massachusetts, contact the independent insurance agents at John P. Russel Insurance. Our agents have worked with many landlords in the state, and they can help you find a rental property policy for a single investment property or a multiple rental property insurance policy if you have multiple buildings to protect.
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