Habitational liability
A tenant or visitor is injured on the property and looks to the owner to answer for it.
Real Estate and Property Insurance
Coverage matched to the buildings you own or manage. When one is older, vacant, or in a wildfire zone, we know where it places.
We shop the market for you, no broker fees
Travelers
Real estate portfolios
Chubb
Commercial property
The Hartford
Small commercial property
Markel
Specialty property
Great American
Real estate programs
Philadelphia Insurance Companies
Habitational and real estate
AmTrust
Commercial property
Kinsale
Hard to place property
How it works
10 minute form
A few questions about your business or home.
We shop the market
We compare carriers and read the forms line by line.
Pick the best policy
We explain what is covered, what is not, and what it costs.
Real Estate and Property
- Habitational liability
- Property and fire
- Vacancy
- Ordinance or law
What changes your premium
There is no flat rate for this coverage. These are the inputs a carrier prices against, and they are the same things the quote form asks you for.
- Location, construction, age, and occupancy
- Roof, electrical, plumbing, and heating updates
- Replacement cost and rental income
- Tenant mix and vacancy
- Property management services
- Claims history, deductibles, and limits
Text us. We're by your side.
Common exposures in this line of work
Property and fire
Fire, water, and weather damage the building, and California wildfire exposure makes some properties hard to place.
Vacancy
After about 60 days vacant, standard property forms cut most loss payments and exclude vandalism and water damage.
Ordinance or law
After a loss, current building codes force costlier repairs than the original construction.
Owners, managers and the buildings themselves, including:
- Apartment and multifamily owners
- Single-family rental portfolios
- Mixed-use buildings
- Retail strip centers
- Office buildings
- Industrial and flex space
- Self-storage facilities
- Property management firms
- Homeowner and community associations
- Short-term rental operators
- Real estate brokerages
- Developers and builders in the rental phase
- Vacant and renovation-phase buildings
The coverages this industry actually buys
Commercial Property
The buildings you own or manage are insured here, and the valuation basis on the declarations page is the whole argument after a loss. Replacement cost rebuilds. Actual cash value pays a depreciated figure. Older buildings, wildfire exposed locations, aging roofs, and original wiring are underwritten hard in California, and those details are what decide where a property will actually place.
General Liability
Habitational liability is the tenant who falls on a stair, the visitor injured in a common area, and the allegation that the owner knew about the condition. General liability pays the defense and the damages. On this class the defense cost frequently exceeds the claim itself, which is why the limit alone never tells you much.
Business Owners Policy
A business owners policy bundles building property and liability onto one form for smaller portfolios, and many landlord risks qualify on class alone. It normally carries loss of rents, the coverage that keeps paying while a damaged unit is uninhabitable. Larger and mixed use portfolios outgrow the eligibility and move onto separate property and liability policies.
Commercial Umbrella
Lenders and leases frequently set a liability limit above what a primary policy carries, and an umbrella is what reaches it. It pays after the underlying general liability or auto limit is exhausted, on the policies its schedule names. Adding a property mid term means adding it to the umbrella schedule too, which is an easy thing to miss at closing.
Excess and Surplus Lines
Vacant buildings, wildfire exposed locations, older construction, and habitational risks with a loss history get declined by admitted carriers as a matter of appetite, not price. Surplus lines carriers write them, on their own forms and at their own rates. We take the file to those markets and tell you plainly what the surplus form excludes that an admitted one would not.
Related from the Menlo Library
Commercial PropertyCommercial Property Insurance: What It Covers and How the Forms Work
Commercial PropertyWhat Is Ordinance or Law Coverage? The CP 04 05 Endorsement Explained
Commercial PropertyBusiness Income Insurance: How Coverage Works When Disaster Shuts You Down
Insurance BasicsCalifornia FAIR Plan: What It Covers, What It Costs, and How to Leave It
Questions we get asked
The longer answers, with the form numbers, live in the Library.
Which policies do real estate and property businesses usually need?
The right program depends on the operation, but the lines we most often evaluate are Commercial Property, General Liability, Business Owners Policy, Commercial Umbrella, and Excess and Surplus Lines. We confirm which exposures are present before recommending a policy, so you do not pay for a line simply because it appears on a standard checklist.
What information do you need to quote real estate and property insurance?
Have each location, occupancy, construction, building updates, replacement values, rents, property management activities, and loss runs ready. A complete submission lets carriers evaluate the account on the actual operation and reduces follow-up questions before they can quote.
Can you help if a standard carrier already declined the account?
Often, yes. A decline does not guarantee another carrier will quote, but it tells us where the standard market stopped. We review the reason, improve the submission where the facts support it, and approach specialty markets when they are appropriate.
How do you compare the quotes you receive?
We compare the coverage form, limits, deductibles, exclusions, carrier financial strength, binding requirements, and total cost. The lowest premium is not the best option when the form removes the protection the business needs.
Get it placed by someone who reads the fine print
Start a quote and a licensed broker takes it from there, or talk to one now.