Renter's Insurance on Tenant's Behalf

Renter's Insurance on Tenant's Behalf

Member since 2019 · 12 posts · 2 votes

Hi There,

I have read a number of posts on renter's insurance and I require it for all my properties. Many of the apartments I manage were inherited from a previous manager who did not require this. As the leases come up for renewal I am sending out notices that renewing tenants from previous management are required to show proof of renter's insurance within 30 days of their lease renewal. Naturally I don't plan to evict someone over renter's insurance but I have read more than enough case studies as to when renter's insurance proved extremely helpful for the landlord and I am firm on the issue that I will be buying the insurance on their behalf and adding it to the rent if they do not comply. 

That being said, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to do so. Most of my tenants are compliant and very responsive but of course there are a select few who ignore the emails. I am finding that a lot of renter's insurance providers require you create a new account for each insured address/name. If the tenant is paying for this at the end of the day they are the ones that should be covered, not me, so it should be in their name (unless I am mistaken), and it sounds silly but I don't have 20 different email addresses to keep making accounts! Are there any providers that make it easy to have multiple policies under one email address/account and designated to different insured parties?

Thanks in advance!

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  • Chicago, IL · Member since 2018 · 546 posts · 227 votes
    7y

    Hi Abigail! That's a challenge right there; you have tenants who you inherited from a prior prop. owner/manager and now you have to go about making sure that they have renter's insurance. I think you're on the right track as far as letting them know that they need to provide proof of renter's insurance at least 30 days prior to lease renewal (this way you keep yourself protected). What I wouldn't do is try to purchase renter's insurance on their behalf. That quickly becomes an expensive and time consuming endeavor trying to do that for 20+ people (not sure how many tenants you have, but assuming you're requiring this of all of them, you don't want to bite off that much; even if you're building it into the rent because then you have to address that slight rent increase). I'd hold firm about requiring it. There are a lot of super affordable options (I have Lemonade renter's insurance for about $13/mo). It could be worth pursuing a platform that not only allows you to manage all of your units in one place but also allows your tenants to easily get renter's insurance quotes. @Abigail K.

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