Insurance Coverage in Florida

[Eric-and-Brooke0]

Hello all,

I am a new host in St Petersburg, FL. I recently purchased a home in the area with a detached garage in the back yard that has been converted into an apartment, which is perfect to rent out on Air BnB! However, when inquring about Homeowner's Insurance with the limited companies that provide coverage in Florida, most of them will not even cover the unit in the back at all if it's being rented out more than 3 calendar days a year, which it obviously would be. I know that Air BnB has their Host Guarantee and Host Protection Insurance which provides limited property damage and liabiltiy coverage, and I've seen that there are also short term rental insurance policies that can be purchased on a month to month basis. However, I would like to know that I have coverage on the unit in the event that something else happens to it that is not caused by or related to the guests in/on the property. Is there anyone who knows more about this topic or has any suggestions on best way to have the rental unit covered in either the same policy as my main house or another option? 

Thank you!!

[Robin52]

I have you tryed to get renters insurance on that property. This would be seperate from the home owners insurance

[Regina164]

Try security first insurance. I just got a short term rental as well as a home owners with them

[Sandi173]

Regina can you tell me about what your coverages cost you per year.  I know it all depends on size etc but just wanting to get a heads up on it.   Thank you

[Danielle50]

I spoke to the AirBNB representative in San Francisco because I was worried about one of my airbnb tenants that was checking in.  He was not entirely honest.

It turns out that AirBNB only covers damage on a case by case basis and there is no guarantee that they will cover any damages.  This made me very worried because they described it as "grey area" and they will investigate each case, which did not give me much reassurance.  I had my attorney call to get better clarification on the actual rules and insurance. When my real estate attorney called AirBNB not only refused to talk to my attorney they said they would hang up on him if my attorney ever called back.  We asked for the phone number to the insurance or legal department but they gave us an address to write a letter (again not reassuring).  They told me to write a letter to the address if I had more questions, which I am assuming goes straight to the recycle.

Long story short, the renter was suspicious so I did not allow him to stay and gave up all the money I would have made for that month long reservation.
I am increasing my private insurance on my rental and I just increased the damage deposit to $800, but what I don't know, is how to get the information of the renter from Airbnb to have my insurance company go after the renter for any significant damages.   AirBNB seems like they are not protecting the homeowner but the renter.  I doubt they would give me the tenant's information.

The best protection would be talking with your future renters as much as you can and trying to get good renters on Airbnb.   I have had 3 great renters and 1 that was suspicious.

I also think it is great to have a couple profile picture, because it shows that there is a man on the property and this might prevent someone from trying to take advantage or steal from you. 

Best of luck!!!

[Noga0]

I was looking too to purchase liability insurance policy in Florida.

This is my finding. check this out Brooke.  

Google: Proper Insurance 

for: Short Term Vacation Rental Insurance for Homeowners.

It covers Florida too. 

[Lois-and-Darryl0]

After months of searching for insurance before we listed, and actually signing up for insurance coverage from a major carrier that was actually a scam, I signed up with Proper Insurance.  It is a new company, but I like its premise.  Proper Insurance uses your own listing and your success to determine the risk, rating and cost.  I can't vouch for them, as I haven' had a claim, and they are not a huge company, but I like this hybrid model that actually covers all of the elements of vacation rentals that we need to be covered.  Good Luck.

[Amanda521]

I am looking into Proper Insurance now. Are you still with them?  If not, do you care to elaborate on why?

[Robert1490]

What are you doing for hurricane/wind insurance?  My proper quote was great until they added hurricane insurance and then it went up about 4 times the original amount.  

[Steve62]

Yes, Proper wind coverage is a joke and they admit it also.  I would definitely look elsewhere

[Richard1]

I have been using CBIZ for the last 2 years.  https://www.cbiz.com/insurance

[Tyson11]

Thanks for the input from everyone!  I have more info that may prove useful...
I just had a 3rd party insurance broker evaluate both Proper and CBIZ in North FL.

The Proper policy was better overall, but the wind premium was very high.

The CBIZ policy had a more reasonable wind premium, partially because they allow a 3% deductible rather than insisting upon using the same deductible for all coverages like Proper does.  My lender required a $1,000 deductible, so this made Proper very expensive.  The Proper rep in North FL seemed to think I could get a "wind only" policy anywhere...  which is wrong.  Insurance brokers will only write "wind only" policies through the state-run "Citizen's" and only then as a last resort.

The main weakness of the CBIZ policy was very poor O&L coverage.  O&L stands for "Ordinance & Law" and essentially it means "If there is an ordinance that says you have to demolish your property entirely and rebuild it completely, to code, if it's more than (say) 50% damaged...  the additional coverage for that is X".  The Proper policy had "full coverage" and the CBIZ policy had almost none.
The coverage offered depends on the property itself.  CBIZ didn't offer O&L coverage to me because my property is very old.  Older properties are generally more expensive to rebuild to code from scratch.

The limited amount of information available suggested to me that the neighborhood's historical preservation guidelines would prohibit demolition if at all avoidable, so I've kept my CBIZ policy...  and I'm hoping to avoid any surprises should the unthinkable happen.

[Dwayne-And-Allison0]

Hi Tyson,  What type of policy did you eventually go with? Landlord policy, rental policy, ...? Also, did you keep your homeowners policy too?

[Robert1490]

I posted this in response to a specific post above, but also wanted to post this in the general conversation.  Tyson mentioned this but wanted to see if there was any more perspective on options for hurricane/wind.  Proper and CBIZ both have very high quotes if including hurricane/wind (I'm in the Tampa Bay area).  They said some people elect to keep their original homeowners insurance as well just to keep hurricane.  However, my current homeowners insurance says that any short term rentals are a violation of the contract, so supposedly I wouldn't be covered.  Proper was about 2500 without wind and 8500 with wind.  My original insurance is about 2200...so they were saying it would be cheaper to do 2500 + 2200 to keep hurricane/wind.  

Are there any other companies out there that offer Florida coverage, but also allow Short Term Renting?

[Sandi173]

@Robert1490 

Robert

I was wondering if you came up with a wind/hail  homeowners policy that was ok with short term rentals?  Do you have a agent that you could refer me too.  I am working on a new policy but ran into the same problem as you.    I got a quote from Proper but that one is so high I don't know how hosts could possibly afford a premium like that when their income is small.

I would appreciate any help or information you could give me.  

Thank you

@Sandi173