Rental Property Insurance in Vermont

What is rental property insurance?

Investing in any rental properties requires significant capital, and significant time for many smaller landlords. It’s important to protect such investments whenever possible. That’s what rental property insurance can help landlords in Vermont do.

Rental property offers tailored protections for smaller residential investment properties. Policies typically help protect insured properties against damage, and landlords against liability suits.

What properties do landlords in Vermont get rental property policies for?

Rental property policies are mostly used for smaller residential properties, such as single-family houses and duplexes in Vermont. It may also insure other residential and some commercial properties.

In most cases, the residential properties insured have fewer than five units. Five or more units are often treated differently, for both loans and insurance policies.

What insurance protections can rental property policies provide?

Rental property policies normally come with multiple coverages, which is why they can protect both properties and landlords. Some of the main coverages that a policy will likely offer are:

• Dwelling Coverage: Normally for the rental property itself, usually covering the building and associated structures against perils that would cause damage.
• Landlord Contents Coverage: Normally for items stored at the rental property by the landlord. These could be appliances, lawnmowers, snowblowers, and furniture in furnished units.
• Loss of Income Coverage: Normally for unreceived rents when a disaster makes the property uninhabitable, and tenants are forced to move out.
• Rent Guarantee Coverage: Normally for unreceived rents when tenants don’t make their payments for an extended time.
• General Liability Coverage: Normally for incidents where tenants, visitors, or others sustain injuries on the property, and then allege that their injuries were due to the landlord’s negligence.
• Legal Assistance Coverage: Normally for expenses related to legal actions other than liability lawsuits. These could be fees incurred when pursuing evictions or judgments, for example.

When should landlords include rent guarantee coverage in their policy?

Rent guarantee coverage can be required in some cases, and may be recommended in others. There are still other situations where the coverage might reasonably be skipped.

It’s often required when rental properties are financed. Lenders frequently require it so they can better trust that the mortgage can be repaid even if rent isn’t paid. It’s broadly recommended in most any situation where a landlord needs rent payments to cover immediate expenses, whether rental property or personal expenses.

Landlords who use properties primarily as long-term investments, and can financially survive even if tenants don’t pay, may want to forgo rent guarantee coverage. They can likely survive short-term, while they seek to remedy nonpayment.

Any landlords uncertain whether they should have this coverage can speak with an insurance agent who specializes in rental properties. A specialized agent will be familiar with the coverage, and when it’s useful to have. 

Can landlords cover multiple properties with a single rental property policy?

Yes, multiple rental property insurance policies are readily available. While not every policy will necessarily cover multiple properties, a knowledgeable agent can likely find several multiple rental property insurance options to choose from.

For landlords who have more than one property, especially if they’re similar, multiple rental property insurance is typically more cost-effective than having separate policies for each property.

What are the insurance premiums that landlords pay?

The premiums that landlords pay to insure their properties vary. A property’s location, number of units, construction, and other details can all influence premiums. So too can a landlord’s claims history, chosen policy, and many other details.

An independent insurance agent can help landlords get several quotes for their particular properties.