If you are a landlord, you are motivated to keep your rental properties occupied and ensure your renter’s needs are being met. It can be tricky when catastrophic damage takes place, to maintain both of these goals. Flood, fire, and storm damage can leave your rental properties uninhabitable. While fires and natural disasters don’t negate the lease agreement, it may require you to reduce or suspend payment until the property is once again livable.
In other words, it’s in your best interest to act immediately and get your property restored to proper condition.
Communicate with Your Tenants
If you have people living on the property, you’ll first want to confirm that they’re safe. Talk to them about the next steps and assure them you’re working on the situation. This is likely a very emotional and confusing time for them.
However, it’s also important that they understand what you are and are not responsible for. If the cause of damage falls under your insurance coverage, it will likely cover most (if not all) repair costs, as well as reimburse you for possessions you may have lost in the incident. That coverage does not extend to possessions your tenants own, nor does it cover temporary living situations for them, such as hotel rentals.
For that, they’ll need to use their own rental insurance policy.
Your insurance policy can potentially cover the loss of rent due to the home being uninhabitable. It can also provide liability protection, should your tenants try to sue you. For full details on what your policy does and doesn’t cover, you should speak to your insurance agent.
Keep Documentation
In addition to speaking to your insurance company, you’ll want to document the damage yourself. While the insurance company will ultimately send a representative to survey the damage, it’s in your best interest to keep your own record. Take pictures of the damage to the property, as well as damage done to any possessions you might have had there.
For the sake of being thorough and helping your tenants, go ahead and document their damaged possessions as well.
Seek Professional Help
Many landlords are hands on with the properties they own, taking care of maintenance needs and updates as they arise. Emergency repairs, however, are a very different situation. You need thorough, fast-acting repair services from people who know how to navigate insurance coverage.
In other words, you need a professional restoration company.
At Reliant Restoration, we’re available 24/7 to meet the needs of those who have suffered from sudden, catastrophic damage in Springfield and beyond. For storm, water and fire restoration or mold removal in Springfield, Ohio contact Reliant Restoration today!