My New Landlord Wants Me To Buy Frederick Renters Insurance And List Him As Additional Interest – Is This Legal?
What Is An Additional Interest?
When you list your landlord as additional interest on your Frederick, MD Renters Insurance, you are not granting him any coverage at all under the policy. All you’re granting him is the right to be notified if the policy status changes. What that means in the real world is that he’ll be notified if the policy lapses or cancels. Since he’s requiring you to have renters insurance, and it’s a term of the lease with which you need to comply, that’s perfectly reasonable.
Some landlords will ask to be additional insured. In general, this is a bad idea born out of the way that commercial policies interact. Personal policies don’t function the same way, and listing your landlord as additional insured may have some serious coverage implications. Additional insured status could, in some cases, even make coverage under the liability section of the policy completely unavailable to your landlord. The state of Maryland actually tried to outlaw the listing of landlords as additional insured on renters policies a few years back. The bill never went anywhere, but if it’s a problem big enough for the legislature to attempt to take on, you know it’s a problem.
Go ahead and list him as additional insured. No harm to be found here.
Why Does My Landlord Require Renters Insurance In Frederick?
If you live in a large community, your landlord might have a deductible of five, ten, or twenty thousand dollars on their commercial policy that covers the buildings. If their deductible is twenty thousand dollars and you cause a fire that does fifteen thousand dollars of damage to the property, there’s no coverage from his policy. But if you have Frederick, MD Renters Insurance, your liability coverage would pay for that loss, as well as defend you against the lawsuit if necessary. That makes the landlord whole and allows you to keep living there once repairs are made.
On the other hand, if you do fifty thousand dollars of damage to the property, his policy might pay after the $20,000 mark. He gets a check from his insurance for $30,000 and he’s still out the twenty grand deductible. He’ll sue you for that difference. Your renters policy will again cover the claim as well as defense costs if necessary.
Your landlord is not responsible for additional living expenses after a loss, in most cases. It’s not his problem to put you up in a hotel, his obligations would be fulfilled by a rent abatement for the period your apartment is not usable. He’s also not responsible for your stuff. By requiring you to have a renters insurance policy, he’s making sure that you understand where his obligations end, along with ensuring that you have coverage for those losses.
Overall, it’s a good idea to have renters insurance for your apartment in Frederick, especially if it’s a lease requirement. If your landlord is additional interest on your policy, he’ll know if you’ve been naughty and let your policy cancel. He might charge you a fine, or he might even have additional and serious remedies, as well. To find out how you can get covered for an average of just fifteen dollars a month, just call the insurance experts for MD renters at (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need Frederick renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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Photo Credit: Ron Cogswell Carroll Creek Park Frederick (MD) March 2011 CC BY 2.0