Owning an apartment building sounds like it should be a fairly straightforward endeavor. If you’ve got the money to purchase a property, it really should be as easy as welcoming tenants into your building and reaping the financial benefits of a successful business. As with all businesses, however, running an apartment building doesn’t always go as smoothly as people expect. There are quite a few risks that apartment owners can incur, all of which prove exactly why landlord insurance and liability coverage are so important.
Injury Responsibility
A landlord can be held responsible for any injury that happens in their building if the injured person can prove that the building owner was somehow negligent in a way that may have had something to do with the injury.
Dangerous Conditions
Sometimes, negligence isn’t even necessary for the landlord to be held liable. In some cases, just having a dangerous condition in the building that the landlord should have known about is enough to cause liability headaches.
Natural Disasters
Most insurance policies don’t just come with natural disaster insurance. Depending on where your building is located, flood or earthquake insurance would be covered by an entirely different policy, so if you’re not sure what you’re covered for, ask a professional at Insurance by Castle to help you wade through the fine print.
Liability Claims
Your general liability insurance will take care of most claims, including payment of damages and attorney fees in defense of the apartment owner, but “liability” continues to extend into new realms. Invasion of internet privacy, for example, is one. Libel, slander, and discrimination are liability concerns, too. It’s always best to just be a good person along these lines, but it’s also worth knowing in what ways you are protected from these types of liability claims.
Vehicle Liability
Any vehicles used for the landlord’s business—regardless of whether they are driving or whether it’s an employee behind the wheel—should be covered by a liability policy. Accidents happen, and it’s essential that you’re prepared should one happen with one of your vehicles.
Animals
If you are going to allow pets, it’s worth knowing that dogs bring more liability for landlords. This is why so many tenants simply don’t allow them. Of course, other critters around the premises are the landlord’s responsibility, too, so if there are pest control issues, make sure you take care of those in a timely manner.
Security
While landlords are not responsible for protecting their tenants from criminal acts, they are responsible for making sure common areas like hallways, stairways, and elevators are kept in good condition and safe from potential criminals.
Get the Right Insurance Coverage
All of these things can cause headaches for landlords, but that’s the way business ownership and liability goes. To safeguard yourself, work with the professionals here at Insurance by Castle so we can make sure you’re covered for as many of these risks as possible. The only way to properly mitigate them all is to make sure the insurance coverage lines up with everything that could potentially go wrong.
