A deposit is a month of rent and a hope. When a tenancy ends badly the gap between what the deposit holds and what the repair costs is where owners discover what their policy actually does.
Wear and tear is never covered. Sudden damage sometimes is. The difference decides who pays.
Three things about the condition of a property between tenancies.
Worn carpet, tired paint, a kitchen at the end of its life: none of that is an insured loss and none of it is properly a deduction from a deposit either. It is the cost of owning a property that people live in, and it should be budgeted rather than insured or argued about.
A broken door, a hole in a wall, a deliberately damaged fitting may fall under vandalism or malicious damage depending on the form. Some landlord policies include it, some exclude tenant acts specifically. Knowing which you hold is worth more than the deposit itself.
A dated photographic record at the start and end of each tenancy settles nearly every dispute about what changed and when. Without one both the deposit discussion and any claim become a matter of competing recollection.
Where the deposit ends and the policy might begin.
The single most variable clause between landlord forms.
A thousand dollar deductible makes most tenant damage claims pointless. That is worth knowing when choosing it.
Not an insurance product, but the thing that most reliably protects an owner.
Tell us the rent, the deductible you want and whether you keep condition reports.
We tell you plainly which tenant damage your form will and will not pay for.
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