If you’re a renter, landlord or a property owner, insurance is always a necessity, but when it comes to flood insurance, the information can be a little murky. Conventional insurance doesn’t usually cover flooding, and if there’s a flood, it might not even cover the damage to the contents of the apartment or property.
Wondering how to sort it all out? Read on to learn more about flood insurance.
Flood insurance best practices may vary by provider and region. Reach out to your insurance agent and local government for specific information regarding flood insurance in your area.
Flood Insurance for Tenants
Do I need food insurance as a renter?
That depends.
Do you rent in a high-risk area?
If so, you (the tenant) are probably required to carry flood insurance.
Even if you’re not renting in a high-risk area, that doesn’t mean a flood isn’t possible. You don’t need a large-scale natural disaster to wipe out all of your personal belongings. A flash flood from a big storm or even a sudden downpour can lead to a flood in an apartment or rental property.
But wait, you have renter’s insurance, right? And you probably have a business or home inventory to complement your policy, so you should be covered, right? Unfortunately, even with renter’s insurance, you may not be covered.
If a pipe breaks and floods your apartment or if the upstairs tenant leaves the bathtub water on and walks away flooding your bathroom, your personal belongings and furniture are probably covered by your landlord or property owner’s insurance. But if the flood is from a storm or natural disaster, you’ll be on the hook to pay for all the damage to your belongings.
Adding a flood insurance clause to your renter’s insurance will cover your belongings in the event of a flood caused by a storm or natural disaster. It will help pay for the cost of repair or replacement of furniture, clothing, books, electronics and other personal items that can suffer water damage.
Flood Insurance for Landlords
If you’re a landlord or rental property owner, you have insurance. The question is, what kind of insurance do you have? Most policies for rental properties are quite comprehensive. However, something they rarely include is flood insurance. Unless you are in a high-risk area where flood insurance is required, you probably don’t have it covered in your policy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines Special Flood Hazard Areas, or SFHA, and if your property is inside an SFHA, you are required to have flood coverage. If you don’t reside in a flood hazard zone, you’ll still want to consider adding a flood insurance rider to your policy.
Listed below are considerations landlords and property managers should keep in mind when researching flood-insurance policies for their rental or managed properties:
- Unlike flood insurance for owner-occupied properties, for rental properties, policies will cover the cash value of the property, not the replacement cost.
- This type of flood insurance policy will also cover the cash value of the electrical, plumbing, cabinets and heating and cooling systems within a rental unit.
- Additional coverage is available for purchase to cover items including appliances, furniture, window coverings and more.
- Tenants should purchase their own flood insurance (as a part of a renter’s insurance policy) to cover their personal belongings.
Protect Your Property With Help from Rainbow Restoration
Flood insurance can be confusing, and it might seem like only people in flood zones need to worry about it – until a torrential downpour floods your rental property and you have to cover the costs yourself. Having the right insurance can make or break you if you’re faced with flooding.
Should the unthinkable happen, insurance or not, you need to call in a team of responsive professionals with the latest tools and technologies to help with water removal, structural drying, repairs and restoration. Rainbow Restoration’s local technicians strive to be the leader in residential water damage restoration by working with you and your insurance company every step of the way to restore your property.
Time is of the essence. If you’ve experienced a flood, choose Rainbow Restoration. Call for 24/7 emergency service or schedule an appointment online.
