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Rental Property Insurance Essential for both Landlords and Tenants

Article by Nigel Bowden
























Insurance is one of those expenses that most times, seem to show little in the way of return. Many people have insured something of value, such as property or chattels, for years on end, and never once needed to make a claim. Sometimes, especially if money is a little tight, they walk a little on the wild side, and let their policies lapse. The fortunate ones have nothing adverse happen, but in many cases the opposite is the case. This is especially true for rental property insurance, and the media often show stories of tenants who have lost all their possessions in a fire, and were uninsured. Every property owners must have insurance to protect what is usually the largest asset they own. If that property is used to generate rental income, it is even more essential that, as a landlord, the owner has a range of insurances in place, especially if the asset is under property management Christchurch control. When arranging insurance, a landlord must ensure that the policy they are taking out provides suitable cover for a rental property. There are policies available that cover not only the building but other issues relevant to the tenancy e.g. vacancy periods and damage by tenants. The landlord should discuss their requirements with the insurance company, as they may have to provide certain details before making a claim, such as up to date inspection reports if the claim is to do with damage by tenants. If the landlord has some of their own chattels stored at the property, or actually in the residence and being used by the tenants ie the property may have been rented as furnished, insurance on these chattels is the responsibility of the landlord and are not covered by the tenant’s insurance policies. These items should be listed on the tenancy agreement as being part of the property, so there is no disputing ownership when the tenant vacates. Insurance on rental properties is a must for tenants as well as landlords. The tenant should insure their possessions under their own contents insurance policy. The landlord’s insurance will not cover them. The tenant should also consider taking out personal liability insurance to cover them if any damage is done to the rental property either by themselves or their invited guests, either unintentionally or carelessly. Many tenants take out contents insurance but don’t bother about personal liability insurance. Christchurch real estate agencies that do property management recommend personal liability insurance for tenants as it can protect them from any claims by the landlord’s insurance company should the landlord have claimed for damages caused by the tenant. Insurances give people peace of mind. Provided the extent of the cover provided by the policy is understood by the insured, there should be no misunderstanding when it comes time to make a claim, through accident, misadventure or as a result of a natural disaster.

About the Author

Christchurch real estate instructs that insurance on rental properties is must for tenants and landlords.












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Good Archiving is Essential When Some Types of Building Insurance Claims Go On for Years

Article by Alison Withers









Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers

Home insurance claims sometimes take several years to resolve once and for all. The key organisation most customers will deal with is the Loss Adjustor, so their record archiving and efficiency is crucial.

The loss adjustor is the co-ordinating link between the issuers of a home insurance policy, the customer, the contractors who will make repairs and anyone else who might be liable for the damage that has been caused.

So it’s quite likely that the loss adjusting company dealing with the claim will have to keep records on file for a number of years, and that usually means archiving documents in a storage facility away from the company offices.

Archiving in a secure storage facility with 24-hour access is obviously a more cost-effective solution than eating up acres of expensive office space, but it needs to be done properly to be effective.

In one case we know of, where a tree on public land owned by a local council caused subsidence damage to a nearby home, it’s taken seven years for the situation to be addressed and is likely to be another two years before everything is finally resolved.

In this particular case once a year of investigations had established the cause of the cracks in the house walls, a schedule of works was prepared and builders moved in for three months to repair the damage, put in measures to prevent it happening again and make good.

The owners of the tree refused to fell it, though did cut it back, and were supposed to prune it regularly to prevent a recurrence of the problem. They didn’t, however, and small cracks started reappearing in the same places in the house.

The loss adjustors had assured the home owner that the file could be re-opened if this happened, and the home owner contacted them once it did.

This was when the problems started, because the company took nearly a year to finally locate the files that had been “archived” under the wrong name and with an incorrect phone number!

In the meantime, unfortunately, the loss adjusting company had also set up a new division to deal with this kind of case, with the result that a new representative had to be supplied with and get familiar with all the history and paperwork, by now several inches thick!

It would have been much more efficient if the company had used a labelling system when storing their archived files that made it easy for to access them even if the staff involved changed in the meantime.

Archive storage companies offer a range of space options so companies like our loss adjustors can be sure they have affordable space and easy access to their files.

But their efficiency was compromised because they plainly hadn’t made sure they had an effective system for identifying and labelling files, and from the sound of things the storage facility was not within easy access of the office.

Archiving in a local self store facility doule have made a huge difference to efficiency in dealing with the customer’s claim and saved a lot of anguish and phone calls.

Good self-store archiving facilities generally have experienced staff who can advise how best to store documents and give easy access around the clock.

One company we know of advises its customers to make two lists of the archived documents, leaving one with the storage company and keeping one at the customers’ offices.

It can save a lot of time and trouble all round.



About the Author

Writer Ali Withers argues that if files are being archived in a storage facility away from the offices efficient file archiving and labelling by the loss adjustors (the main link between customer, insurer and any contractors) is crucial when an insurance claim, particularly on damage to someone’s home, can take years to resolve.http://www.homestore.me.uk/index.php/self-storage/corporate-storage










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Self Employed Public Liability Insurance And Why It Is Essential

Article by K D Garrow







There are few professions or businesses that can safely do without public liability insurance cover, no matter how small they are. All self employed people should give careful thought to whether they have appropriate cover in place for their business. It should not just be thought of as something you need if you are going out undertaking manual work with inherent risks associated. It really is necessary to all types of business where you either have clients on your business premises (even if it is your home) or if you ever go out to visit clients or work outside your own home. Even for people who work at home it is not something you can do without if you have any direct contact with people either at your place or work, theirs or other premises.

Public liability insurance should be regarded as an essential business expense and included in your business planning and financial planning process. The cost of proper cover will be tiny compared to the cost of facing a claim for damages without any insurance cover in place. What public liability cover is for is protection against your own and your company’s legal responsibility for any damage caused to property or people as a result of your business activity. The cover is relates to incidents involving third parties so does not cover any employees you may have, which is usually dealt with under separate employee liability cover.

There are an enormous range of possible situations where you could need to defend yourself against a claim for damages to people or properties and some of these can be substantial. One of the main costs could be legal costs, which quickly mount up with claims of this sort, no matter how unfounded or unreasonable you think the claims are. They have to be properly defended and your insurance will cover the significant legal costs of doing this.

The only kind of self employed person who could perhaps do without this type of cover is someone who works at home, who never goes out to meet any clients and who never has anyone visit at their home.

The sort of thing that can be covered range from small accidents to property while working on someone else’s premises, to liability for injuries to people who visit you on your own premises. So the most obvious examples would be knocking over something valuable while moving around a client’s house or cutting through a water pipe by accident and causing flood damage. A common one is for people to trip over something of slip on a wet surface and injure themselves. This could be as a result of work you are carrying out inside a client’s property or it could even be a passer by outside or in the street.

Much depends on the nature of your work, and while these are the most obvious examples, there are many such possibilities for almost any type of activity, both on other people’s property and on your own. Some of these very simple and apparently trivial things can actually lead to lasting and serious injuries, which can prove very costly in terms of compensation claims.

The cost of not having adequate cover could be far greater than the cost of premiums, which can be very reasonable. A claim against you when you are uninsured could even damage your business fatally. Most policies will offer a choice of how much cover you want, but a million pounds is usually the minimum. Sounds scary, but that does not mean the premiums will be of that order. The cost should be in relation to the size and business volume of your operation, so for a self employed person running a small business, premiums will not be prohibitive.

Shop around using the internet and check policy conditions carefully to ensure you are being quoted for the cover you really need.



About the Author

Find out where to get the best value public liability quotes. K D Garrow has several websites providing free advice on a range of finance related issues, including young drivers insurance and car insurance for a day.