Can you buy rental insurance for your tenant?

[Jehon Bendokas]

I had an interesting thought while grinding through property management books as I prepare for my first self managed property. I have used property managers historically due to geographical separation. I will be closing on a 3/2 single family detached in two weeks. I purchased Brandon and Heather Turners, "The Book on Managing Rental Properties," as well as a few others and was reviewing some of the forms that are included with this book.

I have always required rental insurance to be procured by my tenants with min $300K liability, $50K personal property, and to have me as an additionally interested on the policy. As I've been trying to come up with creative ways to offer convenience costs, I thought to myself, "what if I told my prospective tenant that rental insurance was required with the aforementioned criteria, and they had two options, they could either shop around for it themselves, or they could purchase it as an additional monthly cost of, let's say, $40." Since this type of coverage on my particular property should be around $15/mo or less, I'd be profiting if they chose to use my convenient service. 

First, is this legal?

Second, would an insurance company allow this?

Third, has anyone done this successfully, if so, what company offers this?

Fourth, is it worth the headache?

Please understand that my intent would be to have the tenants listed on the policy as additionally insured. I feel that having this type of construct is the only true way to ensure that your tenant has rental insurance coverage consistently unless you check up on their policy from time to time. 

Also, in my search for this type of system, I found a few articles written by tenants referencing apartment complexes that offered rental insurance to be purchased through them or the opportunity to shop around 

[Jason Bott]

Originally posted by @Jehon Bendokas:

I had an interesting thought while grinding through property management books as I prepare for my first self managed property. I have used property managers historically due to geographical separation. I will be closing on a 3/2 single family detached in two weeks. I purchased Brandon and Heather Turners, "The Book on Managing Rental Properties," as well as a few others and was reviewing some of the forms that are included with this book.

I have always required rental insurance to be procured by my tenants with min $300K liability, $50K personal property, and to have me as an additionally interested on the policy. As I've been trying to come up with creative ways to offer convenience costs, I thought to myself, "what if I told my prospective tenant that rental insurance was required with the aforementioned criteria, and they had two options, they could either shop around for it themselves, or they could purchase it as an additional monthly cost of, let's say, $40." Since this type of coverage on my particular property should be around $15/mo or less, I'd be profiting if they chose to use my convenient service. 

First, is this legal?

Second, would an insurance company allow this?

Third, has anyone done this successfully, if so, what company offers this?

Fourth, is it worth the headache?

Please understand that my intent would be to have the tenants listed on the policy as additionally insured. I feel that having this type of construct is the only true way to ensure that your tenant has rental insurance coverage consistently unless you check up on their policy from time to time. 

Also, in my search for this type of system, I found a few articles written by tenants referencing apartment complexes that offered rental insurance to be purchased through them or the opportunity to shop around 

Jehon, these policies exist.  Common in places like NY city where it's the responsibility of the landlord to insure the tenant has Renters insurance.

I've talked to a few companies who offer this, but never ran into a landlord who went through with the policy.

Set up - The landlord buys the policy (minimum annual premium is $5k or $10k).  The insurance company has a portal where the tenant signs up, the tenant gets billed $12-$15 per month tied to their rent, and the landlord will get a % of the premium credited back towards the master policy.

Not a huge money maker, but if you have hundereds or thousands of units, this is less expensive than having office staff track if the policies are in place.