As a landlord, your goal is to maintain safe, livable spaces and keep them filled with tenants year-round. When a covered setback occurs, habitational insurance can help you recover as quickly as possible and prevent devastating loss. At Myers Insurance Group, we help investment property owners protect their businesses with coverage against a wide range of events, from fires and fallen objects to premises liability and income loss. Whether you own a few rent homes, a line of duplexes, or a sprawling apartment complex, we can help you find coverage that protects your financial interests and minimizes your exposure to risk.
Know Your Risks
Rental property owners face a unique blend of risks common to both homeowners and business owners. At Myers Insurance Group, our job is to help you sort through those challenges and find coverage that can minimize your risk of loss. How quickly could your business rebound from a devastating fire? If one of your rental homes burned to the ground, you would not only lose the investment in your property but also the revenue your business depends on from your tenants. Likewise, you could face extensive financial repercussions if you are sued for a tenant’s or third-party’s injuries or illness for which you are responsible. There will be legal fees to pay, as well as financial judgments if you are found liable. In these cases, property insurance and general liability protection could help cover your costs, minimizing the impact on your business.
Types of Habitational Insurance Coverage
Like most business owners, landlords typically need multiple types of coverage. At Myers Insurance Group, we can help you determine which types of coverage are most suitable to your needs depending on factors like the number of properties you own, the value of your assets, and the number of employees you have on your payroll. Examples of common habitation insurance coverage types include:
Property Insurance
The properties you own are likely your business’s most valuable assets. Without them, you cannot generate income. Property insurance helps cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding those properties when they are damaged or destroyed due to a covered event, such as vandalism, fire, explosion, wind, or fallen objects. Your independent agent can help you understand your options when it comes to protecting your properties, from deductible and coverage amounts to the types of events that may be excluded from your policy, such as floods.
Income Loss
An insured property that has been damaged can be rebuilt, but it cannot be lived in during the process. Talk to your agent about insurance that can compensate you for loss of business revenue when your properties become uninhabitable due to a covered reason.
Law and Ordinance
You cannot make the laws work in your favor, but you can take action to protect yourself against adverse changes. When laws and ordinances are passed that require you to make expensive structural changes to your property to continue renting to tenants, your insurance can help cover the cost of bringing it up to code.
Equipment Protection
When it comes to expensive equipment, such as water heaters and air conditioning units, sudden electrical and mechanical problems can prove costly. Equipment breakdown coverage can help you pay for repairs or replacement of broken equipment so you can keep your business running smoothly and with minimal loss.
Liability
If you require your tenants to carry renters insurance, they probably have the first line of liability insurance that protects them against injuries and accidents that happen in their homes. As a landlord, however, you can still be held liable for accidents that result in injury, illness, or property damage if a court determines your negligence is to blame. From broken stair rails to hidden mold, your failure to provide safe living conditions could result in financial loss. General liability insurance helps protect you against accusations of liability and also helps cover the cost of judgments if you are found responsible for a victim’s damages.
Cyber Liability
Technology is an important part of most businesses, including rental property ownership. Chances are you obtain private information to run background checks and charge rental deposits. If you keep your tenants’ sensitive data on file, you are responsible for keeping it safe from prying eyes. If a cybercriminal hacks into your systems and retrieves private information, such as Social Security numbers or credit cards, you can be held liable for damages. Cyber liability insurance can help cover the cost of notifying clients of a data breach, restoring your databases, paying for credit monitoring, and more.
Umbrella Insurance
Supplemental liability insurance is designed to pay for the damages that exceed the limits of your primary liability coverage. Known as umbrella insurance, this type of policy is secondary to your general liability protection. However, it can provide millions of dollars in excess liability protection – money that could help you stay in business in the event of a major lawsuit.
Workers Compensation Insurance
When employees get hurt on the job or develop an illness as a result of exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace, worker’s compensation insurance can help pay for necessary medical treatment and time off work. In most cases, Illinois employers are required to purchase worker’s compensation coverage. Not only does this no-fault coverage help protect the worker, but it can also safeguard your business against employee lawsuits.
Illinois Habitational Insurance Quotes
If you own one or more rental properties in the greater Savoy area, you need coverage customized to suit the needs of your business. Myers Insurance Group can consult with you to build an insurance portfolio designed to minimize your exposure to risk. Our office can provide coverage comparisons from multiple Illinois insurers to assure you find insurance solutions that are both effective and competitively priced.
For more information about Illinois habitational insurance or to request your quotes, contact our office today.
