14 - What insurance companies look for.
Insurance companies are interested in one thing and one thing only...reducing risk of claims of any kind. This means if your place can alleviate a risk or danger to you and yours (in this case tenants) and also anyone that comes on your property, they want you to be that Alleviation Manager! Most of what they look for is obvious. Think, keep it clean, keep it serene, mark the spots, put the "i" on the dots.
- Where are the railings? Look for trip hazards on sidewalks, stairs, and steps.
- Broken anything from windows, doors, latches, and light fixtures.
- Bushes, bushes everywhere: so those overhanging branches provide shade...whatever…for an insurance inspector who doesn’t care about all that jazz. All they know is a branch touched a wall when the wind blew, and those pretty vines belong in a horror movie, not crawling up the walkway.
- Garbage cans and trash. The insurance company doesn’t care what day it is. All they see is when their inspector showed up there was “trash-everywhere!” That’s all one word by the way. it is used so often property managers think of it like a rappers ballad.
- Peeling paint: Paint is cheap. Even expensive paint is cheap relative to an insurance cancellation. Looks good, feels good and so budget that 5 gallon bucket of whatever and some paint brushes and have someone touch up at least once a year, something somewhere.
Instead of having a maintenance person (or yourself) get out to the property and spend 3 hours to do a 5-minute job, spend 4 hours with the small job and then a paintbrush.
Now let's recap:
1) Keep it clean - no peeling paint anywhere / no leaves, no trash, and put a system in place with your tenants, with signage to designate "garbage here!" and "recyling here!" Places should mean something, like specific places to place cars, bikes, anything that moves for a living. It is in the moving of things where mistakes and mishaps can happen when people get tired, distracted or inebriated.
2) Keep it serene! Be clear on signage and in leases when and how "quiet time" is. Back this up with well marked and secured spaces, rules on "no loud music" or "no shenanigans" after a certain time. This goes for Pool rules or house rules, posted and printed.
3) Mark the spots, put the "i" on the dots. People will do stupid things. Backup your talk in signage around / in your buildings... all your buildings, because consistency beats stupid heresay in a courtroom every time. When you establish a routine of non-stupid behavior and no tolerance for it, insurance companies love you and it can help you rates or prevent them from dropping you. Make this culture of behavior and rules part of your process and a part of your leases. Go beyond lumping the Rules and Regulations into the main part of your lease. Instead make it an "Attachment A" or "Attachment whatever you want to call it" or what others would call "Attachment - you Breaka the rules you Breaka da lease... you better obey or your stay shall Cease!"