Car Insurance Matters

When you own a rental property, it is important to realize that you are responsible for keeping home owner's insurance on the home. Even if the renter has renters insurance, it doesn't mean that their insurance will cover every type of damage that could happen to your home. The rental insurance will often only cover their items that are in the house. The following guide walks you through the best way to make a claim to your insurance company when you have renters in the home.

Get Information in Writing

The first thing you need to do is find out what happened to the home. Have your tenants send you information and pictures for any damage that has occurred to your home in an email. By getting the information in writing, you can have proof of the claims that the tenants made about what damage was done. If the tenants caused the damaged to the home on purpose, the insurance company will not pay for the repairs and you will have to take the tenants to court to get the money for the repairs. By getting everything in email format, you can send everything directly to your insurance agent through email so they can know what issues need to be addressed.

Get Estimates for Repairs

Next, you need to find out how much it will cost to have the repairs done on the home. You want to be sure to have a few contractors come to the home to tell you how much they think it will cost for them to be able to do the repairs the home needs. The insurance company will send an adjuster to the home to determine what they estimate the repairs will cost. If the insurance adjuster and the contractors give different estimates, the insurance company may raise the amount that they will pay once they see that the contractors think that it will cost more than anticipated to do the repairs.

Make Repair Arrangements

Finally, you will need to make arrangements to have the repairs done as soon as possible. You need to make sure that the arrangements are made for a time and date that the tenants will be available to let the contractors into the home. While the tenants may not need to be present during the repairs, giving them the option to be is important since their things are in the home.

The insurance company will more than likely cut a check directly to the contractors for the repairs that need to be done. If you have to pay for any of the repairs out of your own pocket, you can file a claim with the insurance company to see if they will reimburse you for the additional costs. For more information, contact a local insurance company like Kim Farner Agency.