Consumption and Real Estate
Do my tenants legally have to get renters insurance?
Question : Do my tenants legally have to get renters insurance?
I own a house in Ontario, which I rent out. I have the appropriate insurance for renting my place. However, to my knowledge my tenants do not have contents insurance. Recently my insurance broker has started emailing me, and most recently wrote me a “memo” on behalf of the insurance company requesting the company and policy # for my tenants insurance. In one email my broker told me that the insurance company was saying they would raise my rates if I didn’t supply the information. Is this legit and/or is the insurance company just trying to screw me and my tenants?
Thanks.
tenants insurance
Best answer:
Answer by dusty_titus
Changing your home from a primary resident’s to a rental has changed the terms of your insurance policy. Unless your attached to this insurance company start shopping for rental property insurance. Your rates will be higher, but you’ll get to offset that with maintenance and insurance and part of the mortgage service fees and depreciation.
There is a big difference between Insurance for the Building and Insurance for the Contents.
As the owner of the actual building, you would want to make sure that you are covered for that.
If the Contents inside the house are yours, you’d probably want to insure them as well.
According to the Residential Tenants Act (of Ontario, I think) there is nothing mentioned about the fact that Tenants have to Insure their contents and it is very unlikely that you would need to Insure their contents on their behalf.
See: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/law/act.phtml
I would ask your broker on what grounds they would want to increase your Insurance.