Rental Insurance
I was wondering what everyone here thinks about using a type of rental insurance that covers when tenants of your rental property call for repairs on the unit.
Two people that I work with have it on their rental houses. They say that whenever a tenant calls and says (for instance) "the air conditioner is broken", or "the plumbing is stopped up", the insurance company sends out the appropriate professional to take care of it for a $50 fee per incident.
Both of my coworkers say it has been well worth the cost (about $250 per year).
Any thoughts?[ Edited by HightechRedneck on Date 02/20/2004 ]
It sounds more like a warranty program than "insurance". Do you know the name of the company that provides it? I'd like to look into it as well. Tim
American Home Shield provides home warranty. I have used them once when I sold a house.
I have never heard of a landlord buying one of these warranties and I belong to my local real estate investing group and the landlord specific subgroup.
Brenda
It sounds expensive or too good to be true. I know of American Home Shield, but don't think they offer something like described here. Tim
When I did some research on home warranty programs one time, the best deal I could find was with Viking, http://www.vikingwarranty.com/. I don't know if they would sell them for rental properties. Maybe they would just charge a higher price.
Viking's sample home contract has this clause:
"This Coverage does not apply to products and property used for Commercial Use." I would think that would knock out rentals.
I would think you could arrange something with a management company to accomplish the same thing, but it would probably be cost prohibitive for both unless you had many units...
Norrist,
You might be right about Viking. It would probably be worth a call though. Commercial can be defined in a variety of ways. It often simply refers to anything that will get more use than would normally occur in a residential setting.
It would probably be best to call them for clarification, but even better, they may even have a "commercial" product to apply.
Quote:
On 2004-02-21 10:12, norrist wrote:
Viking's sample home contract has this clause:
"This Coverage does not apply to products and property used for Commercial Use." I would think that would knock out rentals.
I would think you could arrange something with a management company to accomplish the same thing, but it would probably be cost prohibitive for both unless you had many units... <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_confused.gif">
One of the two has a policy with AHS, I will find out the name of the other company, but yes, they both are renting out houses, and that is what the policies are specifically written to cover. It just sounds to me like it takes a big weight off of you as a landlord, and was hoping to hear from someone who also uses or has used this type of policy.
I think it sounds great, $250 would be worth it, depending on what kind stipulations/restrictions apply.
[ Edited by norrist on Date 02/21/2004 ]
I got a home warranty on my primary residence that I just bought - it came from the sellers - but it has so many exclusions that I'm not sure it would be much benefit for a rent house.
I got a home warranty on my primary residence that I just bought - it came from the sellers - but it has so many exclusions that I'm not sure it would be much benefit for a rent house.