A standard home insurance policy will normally not cover your home if you rent all or a part of it to another person. When a home or a portion is rented to someone, this is considered a commercial activity. This is usually something that is specifically excluded from coverage in the typical home insurance policy. For this, you need rental liability insurance, which is also called landlord insurance.
Commercial Insurance for a Home
If you are planning any business activities in your home, including having a home office, you should first consult with your insurance agent at Strack Insurance Services, serving Arlington, TX and the surrounding area, to make sure you have adequate insurance coverage.
Rental liability insurance is a special form of commercial insurance, which protects a landlord/homeowner if someone is injured on the property or if any damage is done to another person’s property that the landlord is held responsible for causing. It also protects the home structure, just like regular home insurance.
When do you need rental liability insurance?
This can be a gray area and not always have an obvious answer. For example, if you share a home and someone helps pays utilities is that the same as renting out a room? What about if that person is a member of the family? Each circumstance is different, so it is best to talk your situation over with your insurance agent.
You should also consider telling the tenant(s) that they need to get renter’s insurance of their own to protect their personal property as well. Renter’s insurance is not expensive and anyone renting a place should have it to protect the value of personal belongings
Summary
Before renting your home or part of it to another person, contact your agent at Strack Insurance Services in Arlington, TX by calling us to get an insurance review and a quote for rental liability insurance.