Furnished Finder's Damage Protection Plan (DPP), powered by Rental Guardian, helps landlords cover the cost of accidental, guest-caused damage to furnishings, fixtures, and the home itself, including approved pets. It complements your landlord insurance rather than replacing it, and pays claims at replacement cost with no cap on how many you file.
A guest breaks a lamp. A dog scratches the hardwood. A tenant flushes something that never should have gone near a septic tank. None of that has to come out of your pocket, and none of it should mean a fight over your security deposit.
Since we launched the damage protection plan, the same questions keep showing up in our inbox and on our webinars. So we sat down with Rental Guardian, who handles the claims side, and put the most common ones in one place.
What the damage protection plan actually covers
DPP is a plan you can add to a listing on Furnished Finder. It's built to cover accidental, guest-caused damage that happens during a tenant's stay, including:
Furniture, appliances, and fixtures
Damage to the home itself
Pet-related damage, but only when the pet is approved under the lease
Bed bug remediation, plus related costs like lost rental income during treatment and replacement of soft furnishings
Plumbing issues caused by guest misuse
Outdoor furniture and grills
One thing worth being clear on: DPP complements your landlord insurance. It's not a replacement for it, and it's not the same thing as renters insurance, which covers the tenant's own belongings and personal liability, not your furnishings or your home.
Watch the full webinar
We covered all of this live with Rental Guardian's claims team, including two real (anonymized) claim examples and a full Q&A. Watch the recording below.
What's not covered
Just as important as what's in is what's out. DPP does not cover:
Normal wear and tear
Intentional damage
Missing or stolen items, unless there's evidence the item was accidentally damaged and documentation to support it
Pre-existing damage
Early lease termination costs
Damage that originates outside the leased unit, like a leak from the apartment above
Lost rental income from a guest no-show, nonpayment, or a slow eviction process
If a guest starts a fire, that's covered as long as it was accidental. If they refuse to pay last month's rent, that's a different problem, and DPP isn't the tool for it.
What liability protection adds
Liability protection is often confused with umbrella coverage, and it isn't the same thing. It's designed to help with bodily injury or third-party property damage claims filed by a guest, or someone in their party, for something that happened during an eligible stay where the landlord is legally responsible. Think a fall on the stairs or an injury from using something at the property.
It's an added layer, not a substitute for your landlord, homeowners, or umbrella policy.
The pet opportunity landlords keep leaving on the table
Nearly a quarter of booking requests on Furnished Finder (23 percent) include a pet, and pet-friendly is one of the top three search filters tenants use. Every time "no pets" is the answer, that's a pool of qualified tenants a landlord never sees.
Pet coverage under DPP works the same way other damage claims do: it comes down to the reported damage, the circumstances, and the documentation submitted. The one hard line is that the pet has to be approved under the lease. If a tenant sneaks a pet in without disclosing it, damage from that pet isn't covered.
Filing a claim: what to actually expect
This is where most of the hesitation comes from, so here's the straight answer on the parts landlords ask about most:
You don't need original receipts. Claims are paid based on the replacement cost of the item you're actually replacing it with.
The landlord pays the deductible, not the tenant, though you're free to set your own terms with tenants around that.
There's no limit on how many claims you can file, per property or per year.
Filing a claim doesn't raise your rate.
Approved claims are typically paid out within 10 days.
You can file as damage happens or wait and do a full review at move-out. Either works.
A formal lease has to be in place for a claim to be valid. A handshake agreement isn't enough.
Two real examples from Rental Guardian's claims data:
A landlord found a damaged coffee table after a guest stay. Replacement cost was $150. Submitted with photos and a replacement invoice, the claim was approved.
A guest flushed wipes and clogged a septic system, creating a $575 repair. Submitted with the service invoice, the claim was approved.
Neither of those is dramatic. That's the point. Most claims are ordinary, not catastrophic.
Make your move-out process claim-ready
A standard walkthrough often misses what a claim actually needs. A claim-ready one adds:
Photos or video of the property before the stay and again after
Close-up and wide-angle shots, taken before any repairs or cleaning
The date damage was discovered, documented
Estimates, invoices, and receipts kept on file
Cleaning and turnover teams briefed to flag damage immediately, not after the fact
Move-in photos aren't required, but they're strongly encouraged. They're the easiest way to prove what the property looked like before a guest arrived. One more thing to build into your process: supporting documentation has to be submitted within 45 days of filing the claim, so don't let it sit.
Five ways landlords structure who pays
There's no single right answer here. Landlords we work with split into five approaches:
Bake it into rent.
Raise the rent slightly to cover it. Some landlords still collect a small refundable deposit, around $150, on top.
Charge it separately.
Add it as a disclosed line item before the lease is signed.
Absorb the cost.
No rent increase, no fee. Common on higher-end properties where the peace of mind is the point.
Give the tenant a choice.
Offer a refundable $500 deposit or a $55 a month non-refundable fee. Most tenants choose the plan.
Require it on higher-risk listings.
Make it mandatory for properties with multiple occupants or pets.
Which approach fits your portfolio
Weigh four things: how many units you manage, what your local market will tolerate, how price-sensitive your tenants are, and your own risk tolerance. If you manage listings with multiple occupants or pets, it's worth considering requiring DPP outright rather than just offering it, since that's where damage risk runs highest.
The approach that works best is the one you can explain the same way, every time, to every tenant.
Get started
Ready to stop absorbing damage costs out of pocket? Add the Damage Protection Plan to your listing from your Furnished Finder dashboard (opens in new tab), or watch the full webinar above for the claims team's take straight from Rental Guardian.
More questions
Webinar Transcript
Everybody, Welcome. I think everybody should be let into the room now. Come on in. Get settled. My name is Katie Lyon. I am here with Olivia White, and together we are going to answer all of your questions and give you all of the information you need about our damage protection plan.
What it is, why we have it, how it can benefit you, when you might want to get it and really take some time to answer your questions. So come on in, get settled. I would highly recommend getting focused for the next hour. I know it's really tempting to hop into the side tabs and check your email and get on anything else.
But this is gonna be really informational and really driven by your questions. So we're gonna go through some kind of general material and things that we heard a lot on the registration page some themes as far as questions and information that you guys asked for. But then we're gonna open it up, and we want to know the answers that you have.
So if you have an hour be in here with us, and we wanna make sure that you walk away feeling empowered and informed and know what the next steps could be for the damage protection plan for you. Just some quick tech housekeeping really quick. This is being recorded and it will automatically be sent to you as a recording in an email.
So if you have to jump out for any reason, if you missed a section, you had to let your dog out, take care of your kiddo, whatever it is, don't stress, you will get the recording. We also will have it on our Furnished Finder YouTube page. We have some previous webinars there as well if those are interest to you, so you can have all of the information you need.
And we have a chat. The chat today is private, and it's gonna go directly to our moderators. We have moderators here from Furnished Finder and from Rental Guardian. So if you have any questions, they're gonna see if they can answer it for you. And if not, they're gonna save it for our Q&A at part of the webinar towards the end.
So I would say hang tight for now. See if we answer your question. But then feel free to pop it into that chat, and we will either get you answered directly or we will answer it live for you. So without further ado let's get started. Like I said, my name is Katie Lyon. I am the director of marketing at Furnished Finder.
I'm also a landlord myself, so my family and I have 13 rental properties. A lot of them are midterms. Actually, all of them now are midterms. So I am living the landlord life alongside you. And Olivia White is here from Rental Guardian. Olivia, do you wanna give just a quick intro? Yeah. Hi, everyone.
I'm Olivia White. I am the senior account manager over at Rental Guardian. I've been with them specifically for four and a half years, and I help property managers through the implementation process and how to be successful with the damage program Awesome Okay, so what are we gonna cover in the next hour?
I love to make webinars really action-packed, information-packed. My goal is that you walk away with a couple of things that you can go forward and do today, and also have a resource for the future. So we're gonna cover what is the damage protection plan, what does it cover versus what do other types of protection cover?
What does a claim really cost? How does this up- open up the opportunities for pets? Another topic that we really heard you guys submit with your registration was how do I talk to tenants about this? Do I need to talk to tenants about this?" What does that look like? What does the documentation look like, the cost?
And then obviously, those Q&As. So first and foremost, what is the damage protection plan? The damage protection plan is our solution to that gap that you might have in covering accidental tenant damage. Thinking of things that just might happen when you have a monthly furnished rental. You might have something as big as a broken window broken furniture, or you might just have a glass of wine that spills or a pet accident.
Just in the category of life happens and you wanna be prepared so those don't hurt your bottom line. Four categories that we have protection with our partnership on this project on this product with Rental Guardian. The first is that content damage. So I want you to think furnishings.
This is what I always think of the most, right? Did a pet go to the bathroom on my rug? Did the wine get spilled on the couch? Is my recliner now in two pieces and it used to be in one piece, right? What is happening there and how do I protect myself? The next is real property liability. This is at like walls damage, your windows, your baseboards, things that are like a part of your property that are not, your furnishings that are coming in or out.
Your liability protecting your own landlord liability with coverage up to $1 million. That's really exciting and brand new and just such a big sigh of relief. And then bedbug protection, my least favorite thing to talk about because nobody wants to talk about it, but sometimes it happens and it's better to be prepared and have that protection if it happens and it's something you have to deal with it.
So how does this work? We really try to keep it as simple as possible. You add the coverage. You get to pick your plan, your level of coverage, and you're going to have it per lease. You can even have that coverage start mid-lease if you need to. Let's say you had a, a tenant moved in and you're like, "Oh, I have forgot to add my coverage."
You can go ahead and add that coverage. We can talk a little bit more about how that works in a bit, but just know that it is feasible to do. If something happens, you're gonna file your claim and then the team-
I'm just gonna review it. We try, and Rental Guardian has been great about this, just keeping it really simplistic so that it's the easiest process for everyone. Okay, I wanna go into one of the most common questions we had on that registration page and that I see landlords have just over and over, and it's what is the difference of all these coverage types, right?
You hear a lot of these terms thrown around or maybe like you, you hear them here and there and it's like what is this versus this and what exactly do I need? So the first thing that I wanna talk about is landlord insurance. Landlord insurance is a policy that is going to replace your traditional homeowner's insurance.
We all know if you are a homeowner you have homeowner's insurance. If you rent your property or you rent part of your property, you need to have homeowner's insurance or I'm sorry, landlord insurance. If you only have typical homeowner's insurance and you have a claim come in that is from a tenant, it's more than likely gonna be denied because they are not the homeowner.
So this is really crucial. If you don't have this we have a partnership with a company called Steadily. You can find a link for a quote in your dashboard, but that's a different option so we're not gonna get into the weeds there. But no, this is different from your landlord insurance. M- landlord insurance does not focus on everyday tenant damage.
It's not worried about the couch that got, stained or broken or those types of things. There's a higher deductible just like there's a higher deductible on your homeowner's insurance. So the gap in protection is where dam- the damage protection plan really comes into play. Renter's insurance.
Renter's insurance protects the tenant's items, okay? It's going to protect their furnishings if they bring any in, their personal belongings some of the liability that they might bring with them. This is hands off for you. This is really protection for them. And it does... it also doesn't cover the structure of the house.
It doesn't cover the landlord's furnishings. That's again where the damage protection plan is gonna come into play. Short-term rental insurance. I've heard a lot of people say isn't this just short-term rental insurance?" No, but it's getting closer, okay? Short-term rental insurance can include replacement cost for contents, furnishings, things like that.
But it's priced and it's underwritten for short stays versus monthly stays. So how that policy is created and priced and underwritten looks a lot different AirCover from Airbnb. This looks different in some more detailed ways. First of all, AirCover is gonna pay the depreciated value of something that gets damaged, versus the damage protection plan is gonna pay the replacement value.
That's a really big deal because if something gets damaged, you have to replace it. You're not gonna go replace it with something that's already depreciated, right? So that's really important to note. And AirCover has a few quirks to it as well. It requires that you demand payment from your guest, it requires that they admit to damage before they'll consider your claim and it's dependent on their kind of opinions and processes within the AirCover department of Airbnb.
The damage protection plan does not require those things. It's got 90 to 95% approval rate in about two days. You don't have to demand payment, you don't have to get confessions that you've, gotten out of people, things like that. It's a much more simplistic type of product for you. All right.
Olivia, I'm gonna pass it to you to let you talk about where this liability protection adds up to kinda create this holistic view of protection for landlords. Yeah. So when landlords think about protection, property damage is usually what comes to mind first. They think about broken furniture, damaged flooring, or an appliance that needs to be replaced.
Liability is different because it involves people rather than things. Subject to the policy terms, this component is designed to help protect s- protect against bodily injury claims made by a guest or someone in the guest's party for an injury occurring during the stay. That could include a guest falling down the stairs, slipping on an icy walkway, or being injured while using the property and seeking reimbursement for medical expenses.
The situations may occur less frequently than everyday property damage, but the potential for financial impact can be a lot greater. Most landlords are planning to replace damaged items. Fewer spend time thinking about what happens if a guest is injured during a stay. That is the value of having the additional layer of protection.
Property damage is usually top of mind, but guest injuries can create some of the largest financial exposures a landlord faces
Awesome Okay. Let's talk about the pet opportunity. Oh, sorry, Olivia, I accidentally skipped a slide. Back to you. Sorry about that. Yes. No, you got it. Let me go here. So with this slide, it highlights the different kinds of unexpected damage landlords may encounter, and it shows the value of having a protection program in place when those situations occur.
Some of these categories are probably very familiar: furniture, flooring, carpeting, appliances. They're all highly visible parts of a rental, so damage in those areas can directly affect the appearance and readiness of that property. Pet-related damage may show up in many of those same areas, including scratched floors, stained carpet, damaged furniture, blinds or screens.
Plumbing and septic issues may be less visible, but they can lead to unexpected service calls and repair bills. Even an incident that appears relatively small can leave a landlord with an expense that must be addressed before the property is ready for another tenant. So the two examples shown here are separate real claims, both reviewed and approved.
The first claim is the type of damage landlords may encounter more often. Following a guest stay, the landlord discovered significant damage to a coffee table. The claim amount was $150. While that may not sound like a major loss, the damage was visible, af- affecting the appearance of the room and left the landlord with an item that needed to be replaced before the future tenants could get there.
The landlord submitted a photo showing the damage, documented when it was discovered, and replacement invoice. The claim was reviewed and approved, helping the landlord avoid absorbing the full replacement expense. Furniture damage is easy to understand because it is visible. It is also the kind of reoccurring expense that can add up for a landlord over time.
Now, the second example is very different and much less obvious. Wipes flushed during a stay clogged the septic system and required a service company to pump and unclog it. That resulted in a $575 claim. The landlord documented the issue and provided the service invoice and payment records. The claim was reviewed and approved, and it helped offset an unexpected repair expense.
This example shows that guest-caused damage is not always something landlords can immediately see, like broken furniture or damaged flooring. Sometimes it appears as an unexpected service bill that a landlord can never anticipate. Together, these examples show the value of the program across two very different situations All right.
Awesome. So let's talk about how this impacts some real-life situations going along with those two scenarios that we just heard. The pet opportunity as a landlord myself, we are pet-friendly with our properties, but I know it can make some landlords uncomfortable, and rightfully our furry friends are amazing and also can do some damage.
So we wanna make sure that you are protecting yourself for those opportunities and not missing out on the chance to have those tenants as a stay because you're nervous about the potential damage. The top three search filters that, that landlords compete on Furnished Finder are pet-friendly, utilities included, and laundry.
Especially in the midterm space about a quarter of the booking requests that we see include a pet of some kind. When these people are traveling for 30 days or more, they're very likely to have a dog or a cat. So this can be a main reason and an opportunity for you to be able to say "yes" comfortably when a potential tenant is traveling with a pet.
Sometimes you think about the worst-case scenarios, but you also might see kind of the run-of-the-mill damage that is not as dramatic, but you still wanna make sure that you're covered for flooring, carpet, furniture, screens, blinds and other property damage. So just an important note here, too, if you're going to file a claim that has a pet damage, you wanna make sure that your lease matches that and that your property listing says that it's pet-friendly, so everything is really adding up on your claim Perfect.
So I think this slide does a great sho- job of showing the difference between simply discovering damage and actually being prepared when that damage occurs. So now that we've talked about those different scenarios that can happen, let's prepare ourselves for the process that happens once we discover it.
On the left is what most landlords would probably consider a standard walkthrough. You walk through the property, you make sure everything looks okay, and note an issue if something stands out. The challenge is that if questions come up later, there may not be enough information to clearly show what changed during that stay.
The right side shows what I would call a claim-ready walkthrough. Instead of simply noticing damage, the landlord has a consistent process. The condition of the property is documented before the occupancy, and again after move-out. Photos are taken before cleaning or repairs when practical, including close-up images of the damage and wider images that provide context.
The landlord also has the property and reservation information organized, records when the damage was discovered, the retains the estimates, invoices, or receipts that support the resulting expense as well. Additionally, housekeeping and turnover teams are really an important part of that process because they are often the first people to identify the damage.
When those team know... When those teams know what to report, who to notify, and what to photograph before anything is cleaned, discarded, or repaired, the landlord is in a much stronger position to explain what happened. Now, when I look at the common mistakes section, what stands out is that many of these situations result from small gaps in the process.
Maybe the property's earlier condition was d- not documented or there's not enough photos to show what changed. There might not be enough detail in the description. Sometimes damage is discovered, but there's not a clear process for housekeeping or turnover teams to document it and escalate it right away.
In other cases, claims or supporting information can be delayed. None of those situations are unusual. They are the kind of things that can happen when a landlord or property manager is busy and trying to turn a property quickly. My s- closing on this will be the landlord who put themselves in the strongest position are not necessarily the ones who never experience damage, they are the ones who have the consistent processes in place before something happens
Awesome. Okay, let's talk about the options of covering the cost. The damage protect- protection plan is offered on a monthly rate. So you have options of how you can cover that cost. As a landlord, I've tried a few of different ones of these, and it's really just up to your preference and how you like to work it into your business model.
The first one is just to bake it into your rent. Increase the price of your rent a little bit and then you actually have the coverage, and your tenant doesn't actually even need to be informed if that you have this protection. The second one can be that you charge it separately, right? You say that this is a, a monthly fee.
It's a part of your rental package, but it's just a different line item on your monthly payments that are due. And then you can inform that tenant that what it is, right? What are they paying for? "I charge fifty... $4.99 a month for the damage protection plan. Here's what it offers to you." Most of the tenants are really appreciative that they can take a, a sigh of relief if something happens too and can be covered.
The third one is to just to absorb the cost. This can work really if you're already in a very competitive market or you feel like you don't have the room to raise your rent a little bit, or you're not sure about presenting it as a separate charge, but you still really want that coverage. Or let's say you have a tenant who you really want to welcome because they're ready to commit to a nine-month stay, but you've never had a tenant with a pet, and this person has two cats, right?
You don't wanna m- miss that booking, but it might feel awkward to increase the price at that last minute, okay? There are some options, or sometimes where absorbing the cost can make a lot of sense. The other one is to give the tenant a choice. This is one that I have actually practiced in my business quite frequently, is giving them the choice of, "Hey, I can do a $500 or a $750 refundable deposit, or you can pay this monthly price, and here's what it covers."
A lot of times people choose that monthly coverage because it takes that relief off of them, and they don't have to worry about "Oh my gosh, if I damage this couch, I'm not... I'm gonna lose my entire deposit and maybe owe the landlord even more, and I'm gonna have to deal with that." It's a sigh of relief for them as well.
That does involve a conversation, and some, some landlords really like having that and involving the tenant in the choice. Some landlords involve or like to choose option one or three here, where it's just their decision and they get to make it. And then number five is that requiring it for our high-risk listings, right?
And this would be similar to that cat scenario I described, but maybe one if you say, "Hey, I typically don't allow cats, but I'm happy to, although I would require this added level of protection." So there's options, right? And we don't like to present it as there's only one way to, to work this into your business.
Because even within my own business, I've done several of these, and it's very dependent on the property you have the state of your market, maybe the types of tenants that you're renting to, and just where you're at. So you can have one of these for a while, and then you can change it up as you move through and just decide how it works best with you.
There are some, some levers to weigh when you are selecting the level of coverage you have, and we'll put up a link in a little bit here to the informational page that we have that details the different plans. But there's some decisions and some, some weight here. How many units do you manage, right?
Do you manage a lot or just a couple? And also with that is it your... Is it maybe you're renting a ro- a room in your home and it's really close and you take such pride in that or is it maybe a property that you have furnished a little bit more bare bones, it's a little bit more of a, a minimalistic rental?
What will your local market tolerate as far as pricing? Do you have room where you can increase it a little bit and have a little bit higher protection or do you need to stay a little bit more competitive? How price-sensitive are your tenants? Typically the larger homes, the people who are maybe on an insurance claim displacement they're not quite as price-sensitive because their price is already a little bit higher.
Whereas someone who is renting a room might, by nature, be a little bit more price-sensitive. But we all know that depends on your market and demand and things like that as well. And then your risk tolerance. This is the one that I would say weighs the heaviest is- How much risk are you comfortable with, right?
Did you just furnish this property and you are... maybe you're still working through, recouping that cost, or maybe you really invested in some furniture and a property that you want to last a long time, or that you're looking forward to moving back into in a year or so, and you don't want any risk.
You wanna know that you have the maximum amount of coverage. Then a higher tier plan is probably for you. But this is, these are just things to weigh and to think about as you're deciding where is the best fit for you. And this is just a reiteration of what I talked about when you're communicating with tenants.
If you decide to talk to your tenants and give them the choice for this, or you let them know that you have it by having it as a line item, you're gonna wanna tell them what it is, what are they paying for, what's covered and what's not. Because if something happens and it's not covered, it's better to have that conversation up front than the- than to have to go after and they say I paid for this protection."
And you're say, "Okay, but XYZ is not covered." Now that being said, there's not very much that's not covered. This is a very comprehensive plan. But you wanna make sure that you know the ins and outs so that conversation and communication can be really clear. And then you wanna let tenants know what to do if something happens.
We all know that a lot of times if something happens, tenants might not bring it up right away because they might try to fix it themselves, they might try to replace the furniture themselves. But you can let them know, "Hey, if something happens, please let me know." And then if the couch breaks or something happens, we can take care of it sooner than later and it doesn't have to be a stressor.
Okay. We have a really great amount of time to work with I've seen some questions coming in within the chat. Reminder, we have some moderators in there from both the Furnished Finder and the Rental Guardian side. So if you have questions, please continue to pop them in there. And I think we can just go through and start answering some of these.
I'm gonna keep this slide up as we go through these Q&As so that everybody has this information to consider. And then also this little box that just popped up, this is more information and about the actual plans. But let's go through. And again, if you have a question, please feel free to pop it in the chat.
So Tony says, "For real property liability, if we can clean the problem but with extra cost rather than replacement cost, does the plan cover the extra cleaning cost?" Yes, I can take this one. So if you do have to do... We know sometimes cleaners will come in and try to clean away the problem before complete replacement.
That's totally fine. Any time that occurs on a claim, just make sure to submit all invoices, asso- associated with the cleaning and the replacement as well. Awesome. Yeah. More documentation. I don't think there's such thing as too much documentation. No. Like- Not at all ... not- Not in insurance.
Yeah. We'll take everything we can get. Not that you have to submit a book's worth, but- Yep ... there's never gonna be like, "Oh, my God, you gave me too much information." Exactly. All right. What happens if you have two different tenants in a unit with a different start date?
With this one, I'm not sure what happens if you have two different tenants in a unit with different start dates. I'm gonna say, and I'm gonna say we're probably considering a room rental here. Okay. In which case you would need to have two different policies, if I'm correct. Correct. Yeah. Correct.
Otherwise, I would assume that if you have like a husband and wife or something, that they're gonna be moving in on the same date. Exactly. Typically, the way it's placed is there's one policy per reservation or, booking. That's a great way to think of it. Okay. If we no longer have receipts for existing vintage furniture, objects, or art, what should they do?
That is a great part about us. We, again, because we don't do depreciation, we go off of what's called reimbursement. We do not need those original receipts, we just need the receipt for the item you're replacing it with. Sometimes if they ever ask you for any other kind of receipt, they might be trying to gauge, "Hey, this is a very unique item.
Can you show something comparable since there's a, one kind of it?" I will say, Olivia, this is a great time to, to talk about the claims approval process and the fact that you guys have a dedicated team that works through that, and a human is looking at these things, right? Yes. So every claim is adjudicated by a live claims adjudicator, and you have open communication with them.
So if they have a question, if you have a question, you're able to respond directly with them within the portal and work anything out, excuse me, on that claim directly. Yeah. And I think that cannot be, like, overemphasized because the value- Yes ... of having a human, especially when you're talking about things like claims and coverage, it's- Yes
That's a big sigh of relief. Okay. This one- Yeah. So to that point, descriptions and things like that will always help because just remember it's a human on the other side- Yeah ... so if you need to be descriptive and say, "Hey, here's what happened," they're gonna read it. Good call. All right, Olivia, this one is definitely for you: "Is liability protection similar to umbrella coverage?"
Ooh, this one I am not too familiar with. I would have to get with my team and answer that specifically. But we can definitely circle around on that question. Yeah. I will say from a landlord perspective and not an insurance perspective, I am not an insurance a- I don't have the privileges of the insurance knowledge, but as a landlord how I think about it is umbrella coverage is incredibly inexpensive, and I will always have it.
For me it's a fail-safe. It's not going to be my first level of defense ever. I always want to have other coverage that would be the first line of defense. I see umbrella coverage as something that is so attainable and affordable that it's silly not to have it. However, there's a reason for that, and it's because it's for things that really fall through the cracks when your main coverage can come from a lot of other spaces.
So that's just my personal take on it from a non-insurance professional. Yeah, that's a great- Okay ... that is a great non-insurance take on it. That's awesome. All right. "Does it only cover septic tank or does it cover all plumbing issues arising from tenant flushing items?" Yes, it covers any kind of plumbing.
We've seen, it could be a septic tank. We've seen toilets get clogged. We've seen things get shoved down shower drains, so anything associated. The key is guest-caused damage. So if it's, hey, the septic tank's old or these pipes are old, that's not under the program. But if a kid shoves a toy down something or somebody flushes wipes, yes, any kind of plumbing associated with that.
I would also like to bring up that I think this is another emphasis on once you see who your tenants will be, considering- Yes ... if you want the protection and which level of protection that you want. We actually, at one of my rentals, we had a family that stayed with us in the rental, and it was a great placement.
They were amazing tenants. They stayed for eight months, but they had two young kids. And things with kids happen. Those of us who are parents out there- Yeah ... it happens, right? They're just a little bit of a higher risk tenant. And if you're talking- Yeah ... about who's gonna flush random toys or action figures down the toilet and get stuck, it's typically the kids.
So just think about that if you have placements that have kids or pets, those are where I would really... if you're not thinking about it for every booking, really start to think about, how beneficial it could be. Yeah, that's a great point. All right. How about service animals?
My property is not pet friendly. Will the damage be covered? Yes. With service animals, since they are protected, they're viewed, separately. Since in states you don't have to be pet friendly to accept service animals, they are protected under all of those. Yeah. And I think with the clarity with the, the pet specifications, Olivia, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's just mainly important to have it.
If you have pets, if your tenants have pets, have that reflected in the lease so that- Yes ... you know that it is a tenant's pet and not a tenant said they weren't going to have a pet, then their friend brought over eight golden doodle puppies and chewed up every single piece of furniture, but you didn't agree to have pets in there, right?
Like- Yeah ... this was an agreed on thing from the beginning. Exactly, and that's the key of all of it. Anytime it's a lease violation or a lease agreement breaks the lease agreement, that's what that would be considered. Hey, if I told you pets aren't allowed here, just like smoking can be the same way.
"Hey, if I told you smoking's not allowed here," or other activities, parties, things like that, that people typically ban, those are all considered violations. So with the pets, key factor there, yes, make sure your unit's pet friendly. Yeah. But to that point, that just allows you to be more accessible to those guests that do have the pets.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. This one has a couple of questions. First of all- Yeah ... does the plan cover missing items? So with missing items, let's say you go in and the lamp is broken. We know sometimes with glass, especially glass items, let's say a glass lamp broke, the guest is typically gonna clean that up.
They don't wanna leave glass around. So you're not gonna have pictures of that to be able to upload into the claim. We can still process claims like that. If you do have pre-listing photos with that item in it, that helps a ton. If you don't have anything, just let the support team at Rental Guardian know, and they can assist with pushing that claim forward.
Mysterious disappearance is not covered as far as "Hey, the guest took this item from the unit." Okay, and the second question, the examples shared showed the claim amount that were approved, but what were the net proceeds to the landlord after the deductible? Olivia, as I understand it, it's whatever it costs you to replace the item minus your deductible, right?
So it's just gonna depend on how much that replacement item is. Yes, correct. So whatever the deductible is on the plan you've selected it would... Let's say you're approved for $100, l- I'm just using rough numbers, your deductible's 50, you would get $50 back reimbursed to you. So they're always just gonna subtract that deductible out of your final reimbursement.
Yeah. Okay. I have a month-to-month on other sites. Does this insurance cover the condo either way if the tenant does not come from Furnished Finder? This would get a little bit more into integration status. It would depend, if it comes through, if you understand what I'm saying, Katie, of does it come through the Furnished Finder system to us?
Sure. Yeah. I think this... the most simple answer is you're- you need to have the property listed on Furnished Finder so that you can purchase the plan to associate- Correct ... it with on Furnished Finder. And you need to have a lease that goes with it. So if you can have those two things and the boxes checked, then you should be able to be covered.
Exactly. Yep. Okay. Just to clarify, this policy also has liability protection for accidents and injuries, or is that just a feature of ha- landlord policy for homeowners/hazard insurance? Yes, so that liability slide we spoke on earlier, couple of those example- examples you'll see there I always sum it up as trips, slips, and falls.
If somebody gets hurt at the property, that's what the liability is designed to protect against. And those, I think you mentioned this earlier they don't happen as frequently. But as a landlord, when you're- you are on the line, those are the ones where you might get the phone call and your stomach sinks to the floor.
Yes. They have a million dollars in protection for a reason. Most of the time they tend to be six-figure claims because they include medical costs, legal fees, things of that nature. Yeah. It can get really bananas really quick. Yes. Yes. All right. Does filing a claim increase your future plan rate?
This is a fantastic question. This is one of my favorite questions. It does not, because I know everybody has the stigma of insurance, of, "Ugh, I don't even wanna file that claim 'cause my cost is gonna go up so much." That does not happen with this. It stays the same of what the Furnished Finder program is across the board, no matter what you file.
I think this is also a, a great time to mention that landlords, if you have been with Furnished Finder for any amount of time, you've heard us introduce this program in the past. And then we actually took a break from it to find a new partner. And when we were first discussing with Rental Guardian to see if this was a good match, we asked them question after question, and then 100 more questions because- Yeah
answers like this were really important. Because this is a product that there is a really big need to fill. But we didn't want to have it with a bunch of gotcha moments and a bunch of like asterisks, and it needs to feel like true coverage. And this- protection, the way it's put together, like it truly is meant to make you breathe a sigh of relief.
Yes. It gets rid of that stigma for sure. Yeah. It's truly, like you said, it's been like unbound. Okay, I can use my insurance. It's relieving. It's so crazy when we have insurance and then you cannot use it. Exactly. You're scared. You- you're scared to use it, yeah. Okay. If a guest leaves the place a mess but nothing is technically damaged, does it cover the extra cleaning cost?
I will have to look at the policy specifically. There is verbiage in there about excessive cleaning, so we do have some levels of coverage for it. I don't know specifically what they are, but we can get those to you for sure. But there are excessive cleaning limits on there. All right. If the tenant starts a fire, is the damage covered?
It depends. The... So it can be covered in a multitude of different ways, which is the good answer, but it depends on the kind of damage they do. So I've seen this fall under the contents damage, which is those more everyday, hey furniture, smaller claims, and I've seen it fall under real property. The really big distinguishing factor is whether it's catastrophic damage or not.
The example that I saw, somebody had left, I think it was for a, one of those electric scooters, a battery in a house, and it lit on fire while it was charging, and it lit the drapes and the wall on fire, but it was really only about $2,000 in damage. It was all pretty much cosmetic, so that fell under contents.
If it was more along the lines of, "Hey, we have to redraw drywall this room, it's gonna cost $100,000," that's where we see it fall more into real property. Yeah. And I think this is a great example of those layers of protection- ... and where, if it's a complete loss your landlord's insurance is gonna come into play more, and it's just- Yeah
but what the damage protection plan does is it closes that gap that is left if you only have those traditional layers of coverage, especially because this type of stuff can add up really quickly. And a lot of times as landlords, we just eat the cost, right? And we'll say, "Okay, yeah, the couch was damaged, but it's about time I replace that couch anyways."
Or God forbid, they light a candle and it, like Olivia said, like it, the drapes go up in flames- It's curtains, yeah ... and you have to re-drywall, but I really do not wanna make a claim on my landlord insurance for those other reasons, right? So it's a great kind of gap filler. Okay. Is there a limit to the number of claims you can submit on a single property annually or per tenant?
There is not. So if you have, somebody checks in one day, somebody checks in the next, and you had damage off that last tenant, and the next tenant immediately does damage, that's totally fine. There's no waiting period. We don't have a limit on, "Hey, only 10 claims per property." When damage happens.
Okay. I think we've covered this one, but let's just go over it one more time. Does the damage protection plan cover theft? And let's add specifically, let's say there's a police report filed or it's more formal than like something is just missing. Let me double-check. We did previously cover theft
I will say this is also where documentation can get really important. It's hard to document that someone has taken something if you don't do those before and after pictures. I know most of us have a cleaner that comes in. My cleaner is just an individual person. It's not a company. But we even have her just take her iPhone and just document a walkthrough, right?
It's nothing fancy. It's not done with any fancy software, and she just sends it to us on our phones afterward. But it's just that documentation can help with any of this. Exactly. And no, gue- our guest and regular theft are not covered under the program. So that, a- again, go through the legal proceedings if you do discover any kind of theft at the unit.
Yeah. Okay. Is there a timeline or deadline associated for latent claims damage discovered months after the guest caused the damage? So with the timeline, the really only hard set timeline we have, and there's two caveats to this you can file a claim once the tenant checks out and you discover that damage at any time.
We encourage you to do it as soon as you discover it, 'cause that's when the details are fresh. You're gonna have the most items, and there'll typically be a little bit less back and forth on the claim itself, 'cause it's immediate. But there is no timeline on that part. We do ask that once you start submitting information, any kind of follow-up questions, "Hey, we need this document," or, "We need this information," they ask that's submitted within 45 days of request.
But that's about it. Very lenient on those. Yeah. That's fantastic. Okay. What about tenant damage that happens to the exterior of a home, like the fence or the trim? This is for contents inside. So especially with that damage protection, you'll hear the phrase contents damage. This is for contents inside the home or, walls, things like that inside the home.
Now it can extend to things like decks if your g- guest damages a deck. But if it's more along the lines of hey, property damage, that will typically refer more over to y- like your homeowner's, landlords or something of that nature. I like to think about it as like walls in. Yes. One of my properties, we have a homeowner's asso- association, and they call...
They cover walls out- ... and the owner is responsible for walls in. Yeah. Which is really helpful just to think about okay, this is something on the roof, this is something in the parking lot. Okay. Or no, this is my dishwasher, like it's on me. It's a nice clear kind of like- Yeah, exactly ... literal line.
Yep. Okay. Are damaged appliances covered, things such as dents or scratches on stainless steel coverings? How would that work? And what if the ice maker stops working, but you don't know if the tenant broke it or it just stopped working? This is a fantastic question, Shanna. I hate ice makers. They're the worst.
Yes. Appliances are super finicky. We see appliances quite often. Appliances can have coverage under the program. We see things like shattered glass stove tops all the time. We do see if something gets dented or scratched really bad and you have to replace it from a guest, that can fall under it as well.
Now, we do know, especially with appliances, HVAC, pool heater pumps, things like that, it's sometimes hard to prove if the guest did it or if it was wear and tear, and that's a very good point. If you think the guest did it, go ahead and, submit that claim. There might be some additional questions from the adjudicator.
Please, again, don't take that as we don't wanna approve, they're just trying to see was it wear and tear or the guest. But my best advice too is if you have any techs come out and work on it, if they can put any kind of note... Like we've had techs say, "The guest turned this HVAC down way too low and froze the system," and that helps your claim out significantly.
Yeah. I would say also a good thing to keep in mind is it something you would keep the deposit for? If a guest tried to make ice out of lemonade and it broke the ice maker, you would- Yeah ... keep their deposit. If it's just wear and tear, because ice makers break all of the time and you wouldn't keep their deposit over it, that's a good gut check too.
This is made to kinda help cover those instances. Exactly. Okay. What if a handshake agreement and did not create a traditional lease, will the damage be valid? I will answer this and say that you have to have a lease Regardless of the damage protection plan please always have a lease.
Always. I don't care if it's your best friend. I don't care if it's y- the mom of your neighbor who you grew up with for 25 years. It's one of those things where Things can only go wrong if you don't have an agreement. And don't think of a lease as something that you're trying to put in place because you're like a mean or restrictive landlord.
It's truly- ... just a document that gets you all on the same page, that makes sure that the communication and expectations are clear from both sides. And truly for so many reasons, please get a lease. We have leases that you can purchase on Furnished Finder that are vetted by Rocket Lawyer, but you absolutely are gonna want a lease for- It protects both of you.
Yeah. It protects, it, it protects both of you, so you're doing your tenant a disservice if you don't have one, too. Okay. "Are deductible assignment to the tenant responsible for a damage that prompts a claim?" I'm understanding this as if you have a claim, can you charge the tenant with the deductible?
This is from Valerie. Valerie, I'm gonna say it depends on how you wanna integrate this into your business. You could put that in your lease. You could absolutely say that if the tenant creates damage and a claim has to be made with the damage protection plan, that the deductible would be taken from, say, a smaller security deposit that you might charge a tenant or that you might charge the tenant separately.
I think that is, fits right into that you get to do this how you would like- ... to do it. Olivia, anything to add to that? That's the exact answer I always give. It really depends on the business, the business decision maker of, "Hey, how do I wanna do this?" And what you're- Yeah
comfortable with. Yeah. It might be someone who is "Oh my gosh, I cannot believe my dog did this much damage. I'm so sorry." And you say, "Hey, I have coverage. I just need that $150 deductible." And they're completely relieved. Or it might be someone who it was like, something that just happened and don't want to have to deal with it because they paid a higher amount of rent or whatever anyway, and you just say, "Okay, I'm gonna have the deductible."
It's just how you wanna work it into your business, truly. Exactly, yep. Okay. "Does bed bug fo- bed bug focus on other vermin like fleas, spiders, ants and moths?" Don, thank you for the question. Not thank you for putting that into my mind. I bet everyone, it's like the boogeyman of- Yeah ... the rental world is bed bugs.
Totally. But no, bed bugs is focused on bedbugs only, but it does have extensive coverage for those scenarios. So do know that it's not just for the bugs themselves. It can be for things like loss of income as well as replacement of soft furnishings, 'cause most of the time they ruin all your bedroom stuff too, and you have to get rid of it.
So it just covers bedbugs, but there is a ton of coverage in there when, unfortunately, that happens. Hopefully never happens. That loss of rental income is a really big thing too, that I think we breeze over when we're reviewing the coverage, but that's really big. I once had a friend who had something happen to her property and they...
The only reason they were able to keep the property was because of loss of use coverage that they had, and that was able to help them maintain their payments and keep the property. Yeah. Okay, what is- Sometimes become a very extensive process. Yeah. So it can get out of the game a lot longer than you think.
Absolutely. Okay. What's the payout timeframe from time of filing, review, et cetera? The payout ta- timeframe is... Give me one moment
I have one actually. I'm just looking at it for me
It needs 10 days for the approval That's awesome. 10 days. Yeah. Great. So filing and review, just to speak on that, that filing is more, not in a bad way, on you, so just how long it takes you to get in all of the required documents. When we have the photo of the damage, the description and the invoices, it goes in for review.
Once it goes into review, it's typically about two to three business days at the most, and then once it's approved, that payment takes at the most 10 days to get out. Awesome. Yeah. Okay. Do you submit claims as they occur or do you wait until the tenant moves out and make an assessment of any and all damages and submit all at that point?
Olivia, I'll let you answer this, but I do wanna just put in really quick that w- you're not expected to have to go check on your property all of the time. I know, like, when my tenants are in there, I am not in the property until they move out. So there's no expectation of you to know that something happened right when it happened.
It's great if you do. But Olivia, I'll let you take it from there. Yes. There's two ways that you can do this. We're really fine with either. The only caveat to know is if you open a claim when the tenant is there and other damages that occur, the claim might have to be reopened, which is just a little bit of a request, "Hey, can you guys reopen this claim for me?"
Not a big deal. But especially if you find extensive damage right in the beginning, "Hey, we wanna get this repaired. We need to get it replaced. There's a tenant in unit," that's totally fine to go ahead and do. If it's smaller things and you're like, "We're gonna wait until they check out and file one claim for all these small items," that's fine as well Okay.
What about outdoor furniture and grills? Are they seen as furnishings? Yes. So this was that one little, asterisks on the, "Hey, anything outside." It will extend to things like decks, pool decks. People will have deck furniture and grills. We see grills get destroyed all the time as well as outdoor furniture.
Outdoor furniture, the only thing I will tell you to help your claims go a lot easier is that kind of stuff wears out a lot easier, so make sure if you're making a claim for that, you're very clear about, "Hey, the gue- guest sat in this chair and they broke it," not, "Hey, this chair is 20 years old, it's been out in the sun and it's starting to fall apart."
So that'll help the claim go a lot smoother. Do you need to keep the security deposit first, and does that offset the claim for the damage? Ted, it's totally up to you. If you collect the security deposit at first, it's totally up to you if you still collect the security deposit. If you make it smaller, if you keep it the same, if you...
it's totally up to you. It's a great way to offset if you need to cover that deductible. It's also a great way if you do not inform your tenant that you are purchasing this coverage, that you can still, make them reliable and make them... have, have them have some skin in the game for keeping the property in great shape.
But it's truly up to how you want to do that It's a good safety net too. If they're ever gonna do something that's not covered, let's say they violate the lease agreement in some way or things of that nature, it's like, "Hey, now I don't have to go to them and have this awkward conversation because I do already have that security deposit."
Yeah, absolutely. Especially, like you said, if something falls out of the range of being covered or maybe it's just something that's really small, right? Yeah. Maybe it's the coffee machine is broken, but it... That's well below the deductible anyway so you're not gonna cover that. Okay. Olivia, I think your mic is going in and out just a little bit, but that might have actually been our last question.
We have five minutes left. Does anybody else have any burning questions that you are looking for insights on? I will say if you want any more information about the damage protection plan, I have this link up in the corner that you can click on. You can get a lot of resources straight off of that page.
And ask these questions, right? Reach out to Furnished Finder. We will get all of these answers to you through our customer service center, our help center. You can go to support.furnishedfinder.com. You'll get this. You can even comment on the YouTube when it goes live tomorrow with a question if you have it and we weren't able to get to you.
I do see one that just came in. Monica says, "Will... Would it cover a tub that was re-glazed because of tenant damage?" That would depend upon the type of damage, but again, it's... Again, the main idea with the program is guests cause damage, again, to those contents items. So if they went in the tub and they used some kind of lotion or chemical or body wash that's now stripped the inside of it off, or they put something in it that broke the edge of it, now it has to be re-glazed.
Those are multiple different ways, again, talking about those different layers or levels that, that could potentially fall in. Okay, and we've got one more. What if the damage is the smell of urine in a rug but there is no clear physical damage? That can happen. That can fall into things like pet coverage.
It can sometimes be people. But if that's gonna require you to have that company come in and do that carpet cleaning or remediation or whatever it is, and sometimes that results in, replacement of the carpet, those again are things that could potentially fall under the program. And I think that's again where document- documentation becomes really vital for you.
If you're gonna call a professional carpet cleaning company or rug cleaning company- Yeah ... they'll document it for you because obviously the people who are looking at the claim are not gonna be able to smell your carpet from the forms that you submit, but they will be able to look at the documentation from other professionals.
Okay. Exactly. And then is fine artwork covered? There is a section in the policy specifically for fine art, so I can get that over to you with the verbiage specifically on that one. And non-fine art is definitely covered. Yes. If anybody's curious. Correct. Just kidding. Yeah. All right. There is some coverage for it, but I know there's some limitations.
Sure. But yes, non-fine work, for sure. Yeah. All right, everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I hope that everybody has found this to be informational, and if anything, you can start really thinking about how are you protecting yourself, how are you protecting your investment? Putting together a furnished rental is work.
It's hard work, and we want it to serve you, whether that means you get to keep a property you might not otherwise get to keep. It's an inherited property, it helps you because you rent a room, or maybe this is a true investment adventure for you, and you have a, a portfolio that you wanna keep growing.
This is meant to be a tool that can empower you to keep on that, that monthly rental journey in a successful way. Go check out the page, and just start thinking about how does this fit into your business strategy? Where does it fit in? How does this make sense? What types of tenants would you want this coverage for?
Do you want it for all types of covera- or all types of tenants, right? What is your risk tolerance, and how does this help you to feel better about everything? So if you have any questions, again, please reach out to the Furnished Finder team, support.furnishedfinder.com. We also have a chat on our site that you can utilize, but this page alone will give you a lot of answers to your questions.
And please, keep working on those midterm rentals, and if you need help with anything else along the way reach out to our team. And again, if you missed any of this, it will be in your email and it will be on YouTube tomorrow. So thanks everybody for your time, and please have a fantastic rest of the day.
Bye-bye. Thank you so much.