Delaware Landlord Insurance
Get a full analysis of Delaware landlord insurance costs, coverage, and companies.
Written by
Ann Herro has been writing about insurance and employee benefits for over 15 years. She has covered topics as easy as insuring a car, and as difficult as transparency in healthcare costs.
Find the Best Landlord Insurance Options in Delaware
Whether you're looking to rent out your beach house on Fenwick Island or you are the owner of an apartment building in Dover, you need to ensure that your rental property has protection against disasters, damaging weather, fire, or theft that could be financially disastrous. You also need to protect your assets in case you are sued for some type of negligence.
Landlord insurance is the best way to protect your investment in a Delaware rental property.
A local independent insurance agent can help you get landlord insurance quotes from multiple insurance companies in Delaware, so you can find the policy that best meets your needs and budget.
Best Landlord Insurance Companies in Delaware
Several insurance companies offer highly rated Delaware landlord insurance. The following are some of the best landlord insurance companies in Delaware. These companies provide a mix of valuable coverage offerings and competitive pricing.
- Progressive: Progressive is based in Ohio and offers personal insurance, including landlord insurance. Delaware residents can look to Progressive for most of their personal insurance needs.
- Travelers: Travelers offers highly rated landlord insurance in Delaware. It can meet your additional personal insurance needs with a full line of products, including homeowners, auto, boat, identity theft, umbrella, and other coverages.
- REInsurePro: This carrier offers several important forms of property insurance, including coverage for single- and multi-family homes, vacation rentals, renovations in progress, vacant land, and more.
- Stillwater Insurance Group: Stillwater is a national personal and commercial lines carrier with rock-solid financial stability. The company can help you with your landlord insurance needs in Delaware.
- Foremost Insurance Company: Foremost was founded in 1952 and offers a wide range of coverage, including landlord insurance, in 50 states.
An independent insurance agent in your area can help you learn more about these and other landlord insurance companies in Delaware. A local agent can help you get competitive quotes for the coverage that fits your needs.
What Is Landlord Insurance?
Landlord insurance is similar to homeowners insurance in that it protects your residential property in the event of a fire, storm damage, or other covered perils.
The difference is that landlord insurance is written to specifically protect landlords in their unique situation, such as protecting the building but not the personal property of the tenants, as well as covering loss of rental income and the increased liability risks that landlords face.
Is Landlord Insurance Required in Delaware?
Residential property owners who rent out dwellings to tenants are not required by law to have landlord insurance. If you've got a mortgage on your rental property, your lender will require you to have landlord insurance.
There are also situations where an insurance company will require that the policy you purchase to protect your residential rental property be classified as landlord insurance, not homeowners insurance.
Here's how insurance companies typically treat residential rental properties (but this will vary by insurance company):
- If you have tenants occupying your property for 30 continuous days or longer, most insurance companies will require you to carry landlord insurance instead of homeowners insurance.
- If you have occasional tenants staying in your home for short-term rentals, your home insurance provider may allow you to add an endorsement to your policy that will provide you with suitable coverage.
- If you frequently rent out your property to short-term tenants, such as if you have it listed on Airbnb or VRBO, you may not be able to cover it with home insurance or landlord insurance. Instead, your property will be considered a business, and you will need to purchase commercial insurance coverage.
An independent insurance agent in your area can help you determine how to appropriately cover your rental property.
What Does Landlord Insurance Cover in Delaware?
Landlord insurance in Delaware provides several different types of coverage:
- Dwelling coverage: Covers the building itself for any physical damage caused by fire, lightning, wind, hail, ice, snow, or other covered perils.
- Other structures coverage: Helps pay to repair detached structures (e.g., a garage or shed) on your rental property if they're damaged by a covered loss.
- Personal property coverage: Covers the landlord's personal property used to service the rental (e.g., lawnmowers, snowblowers, maintenance equipment) left on site if it's damaged by a covered loss. (This does not cover your tenant's possessions.)
- Landlord liability coverage: Protects you if someone is injured on your property or if you are responsible for damaging someone else’s property. Landlord liability insurance covers the costs of any required medical treatment or property repairs. If you're sued, it also covers legal costs (e.g., attorney fees, court costs, and financial settlements or judgments).
- Loss of rental income: Coverage for your lost rental income if your tenants have to move out so you can make repairs to your building after a fire, storm, or some other covered peril. (This does not provide coverage if your tenant can't pay the rent because of a job loss or financial problem.)
A local independent insurance agent can help you decide if you need additional types of coverage for your rental property.
What Else Can Delaware Landlord Insurance Cover?
Some insurance companies offer additional coverage options that you can include in your Delaware landlord insurance policy, such as:
- Non-occupied dwelling coverage: This provides coverage during the times that your rental property is vacant. Many insurance companies will not honor claims for damage that occurred in a home that had been vacant for more than 30 days unless the landlord carries this optional coverage.
- Building code coverage: This is most beneficial if you own an older property. Building codes may have changed since it was built, so if it is damaged, contractors doing repairs may identify additional renovations that are necessary to bring it up to code. This insurance can cover these unexpected extra costs.
- Rent guarantee insurance: This offers you some protection if a tenant fails to make rent payments. Your policy can cover the revenue losses for a set period, which is typically long enough for you to complete the eviction process. Rates are based mainly on how much you are charging in rent and the creditworthiness of your renters.
Rent guarantee insurance is sometimes called eviction insurance, as it may cover the cost of evictions. Keep in mind that this coverage is very expensive, and you won't likely recoup all of your losses. You'll have to pay a deductible, and it will typically only cover a percentage of the monthly rent, up to a set limit.
Landlords in Delaware should be aware of the various available coverage options, so you can be sure you are getting all the coverage you need to protect your investment and income. An independent insurance agent can help with your landlord insurance in Delaware.
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What's Not Covered by Landlord Insurance in Delaware?
As with all insurance policies, landlord insurance has some limitations. Your Delaware landlord insurance policy will not cover:
- Flood damage: This isn't covered even if the flood is the direct result of a covered storm. To be covered, you will need to supplement your landlord insurance policy with a flood insurance policy.
- Intentional damage caused by tenants: Sometimes tenants act badly out of spite or in retaliation for an eviction notice. If they purposely damage your property, most landlord insurance policies will not provide coverage. You will instead need to sue the tenant to get compensation.
- Normal wear and tear: Things break. Unless they broke because of a covered event, your landlord insurance policy will not cover them. If the refrigerator in your rental property suddenly stops working or the hot water tank fails, you will need to cover repair or replacement costs on your own.
It is important to be aware of what your policy does and doesn't cover so that you don't face any unfortunate surprises later. When you work with an independent insurance agent in your area, they can help you review your policy and understand when your coverage doesn’t apply.
How Much Does Landlord Insurance Cost in Delaware?
Owning a rental property can sometimes be riskier than owning a private dwelling. For that reason, landlord insurance generally costs about 25% more than a standard homeowners policy in your area.
The cost of landlord insurance in Delaware can vary considerably based on your unique property and set of risk factors. Certainly, the owner of a single-family rental home won't pay the same for landlord insurance as the owner of a multi-family apartment complex.
What's more, insurance companies calculate the relative risk to your properties and what to charge you for landlord insurance based on things like:
- The location, crime rate, and weather risks for your property
- The age, size, condition, and construction of the building
- The number of rental units
- Whether your complex has a swimming pool or other high-risk attributes
You may be able to save on your landlord insurance premiums if your building has fire sprinklers, burglar alarms, gated access, or other security systems installed in the complex and in the rental units.
Your best bet is to work with an independent insurance agent who can get quotes from multiple insurance companies in Delaware. You can compare costs and coverage and choose the landlord insurance policy that best fits your budget.
Delaware Landlord Insurance FAQs
Landlord insurance in Delaware provides several different types of coverage:
- Dwelling coverage: Covers the building itself for any physical damage caused by fire, lightning, wind, hail, ice, snow, or other covered perils.
- Other structures coverage: Helps pay to repair detached structures (e.g., a garage or shed) on your rental property if they're damaged by a covered loss.
- Personal property coverage: Covers the landlord's personal property used to service the rental (e.g., lawnmowers, snowblowers, maintenance equipment) left on site if it's damaged by a covered loss. (This does not cover your tenant's possessions.)
- Landlord liability coverage: Protects you if someone is injured on your property or if you are responsible for damaging someone else’s property.
- Loss of rental income: Coverage for your lost rental income if your tenants have to move out so you can make repairs to your building after a fire, storm, or some other covered peril.
Residential property owners are not required by law to have a landlord insurance policy to rent out their property. If you have a mortgage on your rental property, your lender will require that you have landlord insurance.
There are also situations where an insurance company will require that the policy you purchase to protect your property is classified as landlord insurance, not homeowners insurance.
Whether or not you'll need landlord insurance or homeowners insurance is usually determined by how you use your property and the insurance company you select.
On average, landlords in the US spend about $1,083 a year on their landlord insurance policies. Landlord insurance generally costs about 25% more than a standard homeowners insurance policy in your area.
Yes. Many landlords require tenants to purchase renters insurance to avoid disputes arising from damage to the renter's belongings, as well as any disputes over liability claims or lawsuits.
If you require your tenants to have renters insurance, it must be spelled out as part of the lease agreement, with specific tenant responsibilities and the consequences of not providing proof of insurance made clear.
We recommend several top landlord insurance companies in Delaware, including Travelers, Progressive, Stillwater, Foremost, and REInsurePro.
Your landlord insurance covers damage caused by tenants in some circumstances. Here’s how landlord insurance in Delaware typically responds to two different types of tenant damage:
- Sudden and accidental damage: Typically, landlord insurance in Delaware will cover sudden and accidental damage caused by a tenant. If the tenant accidentally causes a kitchen fire, any damage to walls, countertops, cabinets, and other covered parts of the building should be covered by your landlord insurance. Damage to your tenant's furniture, cookware, and so on will be covered by their renters insurance, if they have it.
- Intentional damage: Standard landlord insurance policies can’t protect you if your tenant punches in a wall, kicks in a door, or otherwise intentionally damages some part of a unit.
When you purchase landlord insurance in Delaware, be sure that you understand exactly what is and is not covered. You may also be able to purchase certain types of optional coverage that fills in some of the gaps.
Standard landlord insurance in Delaware typically won't cover the cost of evictions. However, eviction insurance, or rent guarantee insurance, can be purchased separately from some insurance companies. It will cover some of the costs involved in an eviction, as well as some of the rent you miss out on during the eviction process.
No, landlord insurance does not cover floods in Delaware. But you can purchase flood insurance designed for landlords from the National Flood Insurance Program and some private carriers.
A local independent insurance agent can help you find a competitively priced landlord insurance policy that meets your needs. Independent agents aren’t tied down to one carrier. They can get quotes from multiple insurance companies so you can choose the Delaware landlord insurance policy that best fits your needs and budget.
Contact an independent agent in your area today for a free, no-obligation consultation.
https://www.iii.org/article/coverage-for-renting-out-your-home