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Posts Tagged with landlord insurance

Posted by admin on 16 March 2011

Having trouble with a tenant that’s dragging their heels on rent payments? Maybe had an abandoned property with a nasty clean-up bill? Neither are much fun and are some of the investment risks landlords face every day.

But spare a thought for one landlord in northern Malaysia who called around to collect rent, only to find his house completely gone!  The double storey wooden house had been stolen!

According to newspaper reports Zuria Ali, 30, said he was greeted by the sight of scattered wood, a damaged television set and twenty-four concrete pillar holders when he went to the site of his house in Malaysia’s northern Perlis state bordering Thailand.

Apparently a neighbour saw three men hard at work removing the place and thought Mr Zuria had sent them. Let’s hope he had a first rate landlord insurance policy…

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Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 29 January 2010

water damageApartment owners: Did you know your body corp does not cover you for public liability inside the four walls of your property?

Many owners have never had this explained to them. So what danger are you in as a landlord? In case of a slip and fall claim by a tenant. In case of an accident in the bath or shower. Plus many more risks. Someone has to pay damages, and hopefully that person is your insurer.

Did you know a policy for Landlord Protection Insurance can cover you not only for the all important Public Liability but may also cover you for:
• Loss of Rent claims caused by storm or fire (we recently had a home in Paddington with the roof blown off, but with a policy to cover your loss of rent it doesn’t cost the landlord anything)
• Carpet damages and clean ups caused by air conditioning leaks or washing machine blow outs
• Loss of Rent claims caused by absconding tenants or rent arrears or properties left in a mess while you/we clean up
• Damages caused by tenants Maliciously, Accidentally or Purposefully

Imagine this scenario… your agent selects a good tenant with references and all the bells and whistles. But three months later, they break up with their spouse and get fired from their job!

The rent stops, of course they get no phone call. The tenants walk away because it’s all too hard!

At 8 days we issue a Notice to Remedy Breach for rent arrears, 7 days later the tenants haven’t paid, the next day we issue a Notice to Leave and 7 days later the tenants haven’t handed back the keys. We put in the paperwork to go to court for a Warrant for Possession, then next week attend. We get the Warrant and the Police come the next week.

The agent is finally able to change the locks and have possession of the property back. They find they have 6 hours of cleaning, carpet cleaning and a bill from the new set of locks and keys.

We’re already more than 5 weeks without rent! The bond money (usually a maximum of 28 days worth) has been spent in a heartbeat yet the agent has done everything the law allows. So who pays…?

You or your insurer…. your call.

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Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 25 January 2010

matchWhat do you do if you’re a tenant worried about some damage you’ve done to your rental home. You’re pretty confident you won’t get any bond back. Do you, A: give the agent a call to discuss? B: attempt to repair the place? or C: burn the house to the ground?!

Incredibly one Rockhampton tenant recently chose ‘C’ in an attempt to destroy evidence of his damage!

According to a report from EBM Landlord Insurance it’s alleged the tenant told a neighbour he was going to burn down the property because there was no chance of his bond being returned. Just hours later, neighbours heard smoke alarms and spotted smoke billowing from the house. Emergency services quickly extinguished the fire – luckily with little damage being caused.

The man claimed the fire was caused by his earlier attempts to burn his ex-housemate’s possessions, and he had been asleep in the property at the time – something fire-fighters could confirm, as they had to wake him up while the blaze was brought under control. The tenant pleaded guilty to wilful damage and received a fine in addition to one month’s custody served earlier, and was also ordered to pay $1,689 restitution.

We didn’t hear what happened to his bond!

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Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 12 November 2009

tenants in troubleThis story is courtesy of EBM Insurance. We normally like to write our own but this one’s just too good to pass over!

The old saying that ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ hit home in dramatic fashion for a Queensland landlord and his ill-fated tenant recently.

This particular claim involves a male tenant who was happily renting a property on the Gold Coast, Queensland. On occasion, his girlfriend would stay at the property with him.

That was until she found out he was married.

Suffice to say, the woman in question was none too pleased to discover her man’s infidelity. But instead of taking it out on him, she chose the property’s carpets and curtains to be the victims of her rage.

Covering a large portion of the property’s carpets with red nail polish, and a little for the curtains as well, the tenant soon found that his behaviour had quite dire consequences. The damage was quite extensive, with nail polish even seeping into the grouting between floor tiles throughout the premises.

One can only imagine the landlord’s shock upon seeing the state of his property and thankfully, this landlord had a RentCoverUltra policy in place. Without delay, the landlord contacted EBM Insurance Brokers who immediately began steps to rectify the situation.

RentCover General Manager Sharon Fox-Slater said this early action by the landlord enabled the claim to be processed quickly and the damage repaired without delay.

“Clearly this claim involves some unique circumstances, but from the landlord’s point of view, he was left with widespread damage which is obviously of great concern,” Ms Fox-Slater said.

“In total, the claim was for approximately $3000, meaning some fairly extensive reparation work was needed.

“Protecting landlords in these types of situations is exactly why RentCover’s range of policies exists. Policies like RentCoverUltra cover property owners for tenant-related damage, and as this claim illustrates, even in circumstances where the damage has been caused by a guest of the tenant.”

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Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 30 April 2009

We’ve recently seen a higher amount of break lease cases and hardship applications to Tribunal.  A case that comes to mind is one where the tenant lost his job and therefore also lost his residency rights and needed to leave the country quickly.  Tenancy Advice (an advocate for tenants) called and asked us to ‘have a heart’ and release the tenant of his obligations with him paying just one weeks rent and they wanted us to immediately return the bond. 

While we wanted to help the tenant, letting is more difficult during these months of the year and we didn’t feel it was the best way for the owner to proceed.  We advised the owner that we would contact their Landlord Protection Insurance firm and get back to them.  Their insurance rep advised us that had we allowed the tenant out of the lease, the owner would not have been covered for any loss of rent, however if the tenant had the Tribunal terminate the tenancy, then our owner would receive all rent (if any) lost. 

The thing to remember is not all Landlord Protection Insurance policies are the same and it would be wise to compare.

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Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »