The tenant has to be given every opportunity to look at the terms of the landlords’ insurance. Do not allow them to enter the property before they can ascertain that they understand the basic implications of the agreement that they are signing. It is important that the landlords’ insurance is valid from the point of view of having been signed with the full knowledge of the tenant and the landlord. The tenant has some tenants too. These are some of the things that you might do to advance this objective:
Make sure that you get legal advice: It is really not a good idea to commission landlords’ insurance without getting the benefit of legal advice. The advice will look at things such as liability and coverage. It will also protect the landlord in case they are sued. The costs of the legal advice are more than covered by the advantages that you get.
Give the tenant time to read the documents: The tenant can get away with certain clauses if they claim that they could not understand what was included. When you set up landlords’ insurance, make sure that the tenant is given a few days to look at the agreement. They can then scrutinize the clauses to ensure that they are happy with them. There can also be some sort of consultative process to deal with any disagreements that may arise out of this process.
Cross check any clauses: The agreement is never perfect and you need to check certain items on the landlords’ insurance policy from time to time. This kind of work is preferable to waiting for matters to get worse. The tenant should not be coerced into taking on an agreement that is blatantly against their interests. You could find that the courts will not tolerate this sort of thing.
Provide them with an exit clause: There are times when the landlords’ insurance is watertight. You can request for exit terms for the tenant. For example they might claim that they no longer want you to protect their contents. This is their choice and you need to ensure that they are supported in following the termination clauses. It might save you the expense of having to defend the agreement in court when things turn out differently from the image that you had in mind. It might also make life easier for you in one sense as you develop strategies for maintaining your property.
