Your insurer will cover the cost of decontaminating and restoring your property if you find out it’s been turned into a mini meth lab, right? Wrong.

There are a few things to look out for in your policy:

1. Exclusions - some policies may outright exclude drug-related damages

2. Caps on the amount of cover available - some policies limit cover for loss to $25,000 - which can disappear very quickly due to the high costs for decontamination

3. Meeting certain obligations as a landlord - some policies detail a list of actions that landlords must take to be covered for drug related contamination.

 

This can include:

  • Exercising reasonable care in the selection of tenants by at least obtaining satisfactory written or verbal references
  • Completing an internal and external inspection of the house at least every three months and upon every change of tenant
  • Keeping a written record of the outcome of each inspection so you are able to provide a copy of the record if requested.

4. Proving the contamination happened when you were insured - in this scenario, you would need to do the testing upon taking out a policy so that you can prove when the contamination occurred.

Worried about your property?

If you're concerned about contamination in your rental property or properties, speak to your property manager.