Rental Property Insurance / Demands

[Andrew Fredrickson]

I recently purchased a new (well actually really old) rental home (SFR) and after about 2 months my insurance company has contacted me by mail and phone letting me know my policy would be terminated at that address unless I repaired the concrete sidewalk in front of the garage as well as some concrete steps leading to the entrance. There's a photo of the area below. I can understand the steps from a safety standpoint, but there's no structural significance in this spot in front of the garage as far as I can tell, but it was listed as something I needed to repair in order to keep my insurance with them.

Is this common - for your insurance company to come back with repair demands? Would fixing cracks in a concrete sidewalk that has no structural integrity in the dwelling seem fair? I'm all ears as I'm not sure what is standard. Side note - my insurance is through Allstate, and I have 4 homeowner/landlord policies through them as well as an umbrella policy.