All Forum Posts by: Colleen Esposito

For this type of situation you should be able to get a standard home policies in each of your names.  This would cover the building, provide coverage for personal belongings, loss of rent and use, as well as up to $1,000,000 in liability coverage.  If you want more liability coverage you each would obtain an umbrella and extend the coverage over your automobiles as well as your home.  Umbrellas can be purchased in $1 million increments and might cost perhaps $250 for the first million, and this coverage would "stack" above your auto and home insurance liability.

Our office is close to your new home, by the way, please feel free to give us a call if we can assist with insurance and advice.  We are open on Saturday from 10 to noon, as well as standard weekdays.

We are licensed agents in Pennsylvania and work with many companies that insure triplexes.  Please feel free to contact us if we can assist.

Nationwide should subrogate against the contractor's liability policy to recover the money they paid to repair the fence.  

You may need to provide your policy to Nationwide, but as was noted above you have not been directly negligent.

Did you obtain a certificate of insurance from the contractor? In the future, you should both obtain this document and have yourself (more specifically the entity you own that owns the house) named as additionally insured on the contractors insurance to protect yourself from their actions that cause damage to others.  You should make this a requirement before they begin work.

There are pros and cons with a landlord being additionally insured under a tenant's policy.  The reasons to require this are that the additional insured status will either 1) provide extra coverage and legal representation to the landlord, or 2) fill in a gap that might exist for the landlord in coverage.  

For example, many landlord policies exclude pool liability coverage, especially non-admitted policies such as many underwritten by Lloyd's of London.  If a tenant were to put up a small, temporary pool for their children and a friend's child were to drown, the "AI" status for the landlord would fill in this gap and can provide coverage.  

If you are looking to be conservative in managing your risk, I suggest focusing on getting a claim paid and maximizing your coverage by obtaining the additional insured status. Complications with subrogation should be a secondary consideration for a landlord.

I also suggest that your leases require that tenants carry annual insurance policies with a minimum of $500,000 in liability and that they provide you with a full policy and certificate of insurance prepared and signed by their agent annually.  You might also require that the policy be paid in full annually and proof of payment be submitted to you.

Feel free to contact me offline if you wold like to discuss in more detail.

We don't work in Texas, but in NJ, PA, NY, and states we do work in we see the same factors affecting insurance pricing as noted by James Call.

Home value, type of construction, year built, distance to a fire hydrant, distance to a fire department, locale, owner's credit, owner's claims history - these and many other factors have an effect on insurance pricing.

Our agency specializes in insurance for real estate investors, please feel free to contact us for a quote.

@David Michael, we are an insurance agency located in Nutley, and we specialize in builders risk coverage as well insurance for  all real estate investors.  We offer builders risk from many companies and can tailor solutions for your exact situation.  Please contact me via a DM, or look us up on our website.

Scott Good, an attorney with Subranni Zauber, will be speaking regarding legal issues for landlords.

Scott has an extensive real estate practice wherein he handles complex commercial real estate transactions, including purchase and sale, leasing, finance, land use approvals and all aspects of real estate development. Scott assists property owners, developers and investors in all aspects of real estate development, from the initial transaction, to development approvals, financing and litigation.

Free for members of SJREIA and $20 for non-members. You can (but are not required to) pre-register online here.

Lloyd's of London and Scottsdale should be able to provide policies for this type of situation.  We can provide coverage for this type of property in Florida if you need assistance.

A home insurance policy is for an owner occupied property; depending on the company you can insure 1 to 4 family properties on an HO3 or HO5 class policy if you live in it.

If you do not live in a property, you need a landlord policy - a DP3 class policy with replacement cost coverage is normally best - for 1 to 4 families. If the property has more than 5 families it is an apartment and would require a business policy, not a DP3.

Home insurance is generally less expensive than landlord insurance because it is assumed that an owner living in a house will maintain it better than one that is rented to others. If you have home insurance in a situation when you should have had a landlord policy, a company may deny a claim.

If you have many 1 to 4 family homes, it might make sense to have a commercial policy that bundles them together, but there are pros and cons to this approach versus individual policies.

Note that portfolios and situations vary by the investor, and what is a good fit for one is not necessarily a good fit for another.  

We've posted some information for landlords on our website: 

https://www.espositoins.com/blog/