Product insurance for a rented home

[peejeeratties]

Hi, newbie here in both the forums and in the candle making hobby. I am the type of person that tends to over research so I'm sure I'm putting the cart before the horse here, but after reading the entire weekend from these boards, there is one thing I need to know that I haven't found the answer for yet.

I rent my home, I have renters insurance, and our landlord has home owners insurance. But after reading non stop that you NEED the product insurance, are you able to get this if you rent the home. I would be making the candles in my kitchen. As it stands right now, I won't even turn on the stove to melt the wax now until I have found something out lol. After hearing about people having trouble with their homeowners insurance companies mixed with candle making, this worries me because the house isn't ours, it belongs to someone else, and I don't want to cause them any trouble. They are awesome people.

Let's say I am able to get the product insurance, will they then contact the homeowner insurance company?

Our landlord has said they aren't worried about me making candles in the home as long as I am safe with it, and they even went out and bought 2 extra fire extinguishers, and a couple of extra smoke alarms (since our house only had the minimum required by city code, which oddly enough states that you should NOT have one in the kitchen, which bothers me, but they did install one in the kitchen along with one in the basement under the stove)

I am NO WHERE NEAR the stage to sell to anyone, or even let someone have a candle. I've been making my own, probably unsafe candles for ages now. Started when we lost power in an ice storm back in 06. I had learned that you could melt down all your old candles and make new one. I used soda cans as molds, and cotton twine as a wick. Yes I know not anywhere from good, but it worked very well when we were without power for a week and a half, not to mention warmed the house melting the wax lol. (But I wanted to throw in that I'm no where near the selling or gifting the candles)

Thanks for listening and would love to hear your responses.

[TeriM]

Product insurance has nothing to do with your landlord - it covers your products after they are sold if something were to happen.

If you get insurance, they would not contact your landlords carrier - they wouldn't have a reason to.

You should have something in your renters policy to cover your property and your landlord's home in case you started a fire.

Is this what your wondering about?

TeriM

[peejeeratties]

yes it is thank you so very much. I've just seen so much with people talking about home owners insurance and then the product insurance that it gets all muddled in the brain lol.

thanks again

[SatinDucky]

As far as I can tell (and I'm still a bit confused myself) these are two totally different things.

The product insurance cover the products and/or any problems they may cause after they're sold.

Homeowners insurance is for while you're making them. Your landlord may want to check into a bit more before saying he doesn't care. The problem is that some insurance companies wont cover damage if they find out you were manufacturing candles in your home. I've heard of cases where their policy/coverage was voided even if the candles didn't have anything to do with the damage.

[EricofAZ]

Ducky is right, there are two different issues here. I'm pretty sure your renter's insurance will not cover home damage if you are using the home for commercial purposes. Your commercial products policy might cover your manufacturing premises if it burns down but probably will exclude your personal belongings.

I am absolutely certain that if a disaster happens at your rental, the carriers will point fingers at one another and walk away. It is today's model for insurance carrier. 9 out of 10 people do give up and number 10 gets a good attorney and does well. At the end of the year, when the carriers balance the 9 with the one, it is good for them.

Tort reform doesn't work for the injured, only the carriers.

I carry a premises policy through Hartford for the office. It covers the business, any injury on the property, any loss of the property including the rented building.

My main business is not candles, I offer a service so I have a second policy that covers me and my employees personally if we malpractice our service.

There is no one policy that covers everything, not even an umbrella, but an umbrella might be worth getting, especially if it does not exclude commercial.

There are a ton of folks who think they have good coverage because their agent told them they have a "full policy."

Please, trust me when I tell you that a "full policy" means nothing.

Best advice, read the policy 20 times and then go consult with 5 lawyers. One should be a premises tort attorney. One should be a commercial product liability attorney. One should be a property attorney. One should be a personal injury attorney. One should be a contract attorney. All should be very high up in their specialty with some knowledge about chandlers.

Edited February 10, 2011 by EricofAZ

[peejeeratties]

oh boy, now I'm totally confused. Which doesn't mean too much lol. Now I do know my renter's insurance doesn't cover anything that would relate to a business.

I guess next thing on my checklist of things to do, is to consult with some lawyers. Wowzers, and to think that something that is fun to do, can be difficult in ways that relate so indirectly to doing it.

Just trying to get all my ducks in a row, cause my luck would be that something bad will happen, and if I'm protected then I'll be ok, but that one time that I'm not bam.

I'm going to start calling around, thank you so very much.

[TeriM]

I don't think you need to consult and attorney. Your renters policy should have coverage in it to cover the house should you be found responsible for a fire... it's called Personal Liability - although it may not be enough would be the only problem I can see.

Any everyone is right.... if something were to happen you personal property limit wouldn't cover any items used for business. But then there is the question that if it's a total loss.... they aren't going to make you give them an itemized list of everything that you lost, they more than likely are going to write you a check for the policy limit.