Regardless of whether you note in your lease that you're not liable for damages to a tenant's property, due to a fire or other loss, and suggest they buy renter's insurance, tenants seldom do. There is a variety of reasons---from not knowing get the insurance to not taking the time to purchase the insurance. If you want to make sure your tenants have coverage, you need to be proactive about making renter's insurance available to them.
Instructions
1. Check with the carrier of the building insurance for your tenants. If they do carry renter's policies, give your tenants the phone number of your representative.
2. Hunt for rates. If you look for different carriers, you can do a little comparison-shopping for your tenants. Make out a chart with the information for them. This saves them the work, and, once you do it, you simply need to keep your list updated.
3. Get the phone numbers of local agents that handle this type of insurance and include it in your rental package. Use the telephone book for this task, rather than hunt down the price yourself. Make a note that you aren't recommending any particular representative, just listing phone numbers. In today's litigious society, you have to put disclaimers everywhere in case there's a bump in the road.
4. Ask if you can give tenant phone numbers to several representatives. If your tenants would prefer that you not, then don't. If they allow it, give the insurance reps the numbers and let them work it out.
5. Get a license and sell it to them yourself. Of course, you can't demand tentans buy in order to live in your rental. Make sure you include a disclaimer that states they don't have to purchase from you in order to live there. If they decide to purchase a plan, you can't have them include the payment in your rent check. Have them make a separate check to your premium account or insurance carrier.
6. Secure rates online. If your tenants don't have a computer, offer to let them use yours to purchase renter's insurance.
