Don't rent without proper insurance

sfgate_get_fprefs();

Q: I accidentally put my rubbish can on fire by throwing away some ashes that I thought were out but apparently were not. A little portion of the cabinet was burned.

My landlord have got insurance, but I make not have renter's insurance. My landlord's coverage company is going to pay for the harm and then demand that I reimburse them. The accident was my fault but isn't that what the coverage company is supposed to cover?

Property Director Griswold replies: Unfortunately, you are responsible and the owner's coverage company is acting reasonably in seeking reimbursement. While every landlord should have got insurance, it is not to protect them from states of affairs created by their tenants.

Insurance for landlords and renters is not like the no-fault auto coverage conception but is based on proximate cause. The cardinal inquiry is, who is liable? If the state of affairs were reversed and a fire resulted from a nonfunctional electrical mercantile establishment in your apartment, destroying your personal property, you would submit a claim to your renter's coverage bearer and they would pay you and then seek reimbursement from the owner's coverage company.

In this situation, the fact that your carelessness was unintentional doesn't change the fact that you are responsible. Many fires are caused accidentally by renters while cookery or by unintentional renter carelessness through improper usage of contraptions or extension cords. That is one of the grounds renter's coverage is a good thought and deserving the few hundred dollars per year. I propose you negociate some kind of payment program with the coverage company and then immediately check up on into a renter's coverage policy.

Q: A place direction company manages my 20-unit flat building. One of my tenants is having trouble paying rent on time, and I have got just discovered that the place director is keeping the late fees as opposing to passing them on to me. Her response is that this is standard practice. But my former director always forwarded the fees to me. What is the proper procedure?

Griswold replies: Who acquires to maintain the late fees is negotiable. There is no industry criterion or common pattern that I am aware of.

There are some companies that maintain any late fees they collect, but my place direction company is not one of them. Any late complaints or returned-check fees or other similar amounts are sent to our place proprietor clients.

Late lease payments do a load on the landlord because those are finances that are not available to make loan payments or pay expenses. The other side of the statement is that the place director have to incur further costs and labour in contacting tenants and collecting the fees.

I would hold that collecting late or delinquent rent is an other cost to the place manager. But should the place director be rewarded for accepting or retaining renters who pay late? With the place director not receiving the late fee they have got an inducement to carefully silver screen incoming renters so they can avoid late-paying tenants.

As a landlord you shouldn't be interested in maximizing income from late fees. The cardinal to being a successful place proprietor is to have got renters who pay on clip and handle the place and their neighbours with respect.

Review your contract and verify that the late complaints make accrue to the place manager, and then reach the company to see if they will drop those further complaints or renegociate the contract to except them when the contract expires. If they will not collaborate then you may desire to look for another direction firm.

The writers are place manager Henry Martin Robert Griswold and lawyers Steven R. Kellman, director of the Tenants' Legal Center, and Jesse James McKinley, of Kimball, Tirey and St. John, a law house that stands for landlords. Answers are based on Golden State state law. Consult with your local municipality as regulations can vary. Send inquiries by e-mail to .