Insurance Premiums
Insurance agencies in Maine report that some insurers, although not all, give a credit or premium reduction to landlords and/or renters on their property/liability insurance if they do not allow smoking in their apartment building (landlord) or their apartment (renter).Why not discuss obtaining such premium reductions with your insurance agent? Among the possibilities are the following:
• Check with your insurer to determine whether your current policy includes a penalty (explicit or hidden) if you don't presently have a smoke-free policy in your tenants' leases.
• Seek a "credit" for having a smoke-free apartment policy, since some insurers automatically add a "debit" to the premium unless they are shown that leases for the apartment building require all apartments to be smoke-free. One insurance agent stated that she had seen credits of as much as 5% to 10% of the premium.
• Seek a premium reduction since some insurers may, in recent years, have dropped a number of "premium perks" due to unrelated losses in the insurance business. Since the smoke-free apartment credit "perk" may have been dropped by some insurers, but not others, you should negotiate to include it, inasmuch as smoke-free apartment policies reduce the likelihood of fires and other cigarette-caused damages.
• Credits or insurance premium reductions for smoke-free apartment policies apparently were quite common not long ago. Since nothing has changed to make such credits actuarially or financially less reasonable, you really should make this a priority for discussion and negotiation with your insurer.
Do you know of an insurance company that gives discounts to smoke-free properties? Let us know by e-mailing info@smokefreeforme.org.