I’m wondering if anybody else has concerns about the requirement in the Open Rent contract to provide a copy of your buildings insurance (11.7)? I have cover for all my properties under one policy which means I would be sharing address details for all of them. But even if you have just the one rental, is it really advisable to disclose information on what legal cover is in place; or whether rent receivable is protected? Clearly you would be insane to operate without insurance and your mortgage company will insist you take it out. But it is not a legal requirement and your documents contain sensitive information about your business which you may have good reason to keep private.
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I have never provided insurance details to Open Rent
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Neither have I to tenants
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Download the doc (its free) and remove the clause. I would not provide this information. Building’s
and LL’s contents insurance is the LLs business. Personal contents insurance is the tenant’s business.
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It’s not a requirement, it’s only optional and you don’t have to upload any documents if you don’t want to. I certainly don’t, and I agree with you that your insurance document is not the tenants’ concern, and would likely contain sensitive information. It also doesn’t have a bearing on your legal obligations as a landlord, so I am not sure why this is even an option on Openrent. I suspect it’s because they prompt you for the expiry date of such insurances so they can send you marketing spiel closer to the time.
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I just supplied the certificate of insurance for the building.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your feedback on this.
Our contract has gone through extensive legal review and aims to balance the rights and obligations of both landlords and tenants. It is frequently reviewed to ensure it remains up-to-date and in line with best practice.
When it comes to buildings insurance, it’s clearly in the interests of all parties for the property to be appropriately insured. In addition, tenants must be aware of the key terms of the insurance if they are to ensure that their behaviour is appropriate for the insurance requirements.
As such, the internal and independent lawyers that have been involved in drafting and reviewing these clauses have advised that this is a reasonable contractual commitment for landlords to make.
However, as noted, our contracts are frequently reviewed and this point will be discussed in detail at the next review. Thanks again for your thoughts and feedback.
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It’s clearly attractive for tenants to know their landlord carries appropriate insurance (at least buildings and public liability imo). And if OR think the feature should be retained, uploading proof to staff before marketing wouldn’t worry me. But I’m not sure I want to use an OR contract before the clause is removed and I wouldn’t be happy simply to breach it even if others see fit. In the meantime, I’ll be reaching out to the NRLA once again, but thanks for your response Leo
Contracts state that the tenant is responsible for damage caused by them, visitors or their own negligence. Isn’t that all they need to know? We don’t ask to see their contents insurance. Everything is one way.
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