Property Management: additional insured or additional interest?

[Brandon Cohen]

Saw this topic posted a few times from property management perspective but not from landlord.

Should a landlord be listed on a PM’s insurance as “additional insured” or “additional interest”? I’ve seen and heard conflicting opinions so I’m looking for a few more. Thank you!

[Bo Bond]

Brandon,

I'm not a landlord, but can give you an insurance related response if that helps you.

Additional Interest is "typically" applied when the other entity has a financial interest with the landlord.  In this case, the Property Management company likely doesn't have any financial interest/tie to the landlords investment.  I don't see where additional interest would apply here.  Additional interest would make more sense for a bank/lender to request.

Additional Insured means the landlord would actually be an insured party under the property management company's policy.  I certainly think you should request this whether the PM's carrier approves it or not.  This better protects the landlord.  The property management company has been hired to do a job, and if they somehow cause property damage or bodily injury to a third party due to their negligence, the landlord doesn't want to come out of pocket for this loss, nor do they want their policy to be triggered first.  By being added as an AI to the PM's policy, their policy would respond first in the event their employee (the PM) was somehow negligent.  This is no different from a landlord hiring a contractor to do a job and requesting to be added as an AI under their policy.  Yes, you should be doing this to protect yourself as a landlord.  This doesn't mean you'll always get the AI status with everyone you hire to do a job, but many companies/contractors know this is a typical request and are prepared to agree to these terms.  Hope you find this helpful.