Landlords want more than just the RENT....
A phone call today from an insurance company representing a local family whose home burned over New Years clarified an aspect of being a landlord that I am often hard pressed to explain.
The insurance company representative was pleased to advise me that, should the home be suitable, the insurance company would rent the property and pay me the rent....they just needed to ask me some questions regarding the property. I advised the insurance representative that while I appreciate the situation of her insured family * homeless in minus 20 degree weather * I would not rent to the insurance company and that I required completed rental applications for all of the adults in the family. The insurance company could pay the family who could pay me; however, the lease would be in the name of the adults in the family as I wanted them to be responsible for the condition and maintenance of the property.
She again assured me I did not understand - the insurance company would pay the rent and I assured her that I would not put my property owner clients in a position of attempting to sue the insurance company if their insured family destroyed or damaged the property. If the family was not responsible for the terms of the lease, there is no guarantee that the property would be maintained during the lease.
Over the last four+ years, I have had several fire-displaced families in my rental homes. I currently have a family renting a home in the same subdivision where they are re-building the home that burned in June, 2007. Their insurance company paid them the entire rental amount of the one year lease and they pay their rent to me monthly. They were required to pay their own security deposit as the insurance company had no way of tracking the refund at the end of the lease.
This process seems reasonable to me and in today's conversation when I attempted to explain that the collection/payment of rent is not my only concern as their prospective landlord, she was incredulous that I would expect more than just the rent and that I would want to hold the residents accountable for the property condition at the end of the lease term.
I wished her success in her quest for rental housing for her insured family and suggested she call individual property owners who may be willing to work with her on the insurance company's terms....I am sure there is someone in need of a rental tenant who won't look past the collection of the rent every month.
