What is a waiver of recourse?

What is a waiver of recourse? Waiver-of-recourse insurance is taken out by a landlord for a property they are letting. It is a standard fire insurance policy to which a waiver-of-recourse clause is added.
The simplest way to explain it is with an example.

Imagine that you own a small investment property with four units in Etterbeek. You have taken out fire insurance with a waiver-of-recourse clause to protect your property.
You can rest easy because, even if your tenant causes damage in your flat without having taken out insurance themselves, this insurance will cover the resulting costs, subject to certain conditions.

However, it is advisable to inform your tenant that this insurance does not cover their personal belongings, such as furniture, in the event of fire or theft.

We recommend including this information in the tenancy agreement at the start of the tenancy and slightly increasing the service charges by an amount equivalent to the additional cost of the waiver-of-recourse clause. By accepting this clause, the tenant will in any event pay less than if they had taken out their own tenant insurance.

As a landlord, this offers you two advantages:

• You do not need to check each year that your tenant has taken out tenant insurance to cover any damage they may cause. This gives you valuable peace of mind.
• You avoid the risk of two insurers taking action against one another in the event of damage.

Now that you know what a waiver of recourse entails, you may wish to find out more about the latest developments in the property sector. We invite you to browse our blog, which is full of interesting articles. And if you would like to daydream about properties, view our available properties.