This week’s question comes from Sue:
I have just been advised that with the changes to the Residential Tenancy Act my property manager needs to file my insurance policy pertaining to our rental and the amount of excess and supply both to our tenant on request. Do you have an opinion on supplying such information to a tenant? I understand it has become law, but it seems like a gross breach of privacy. Your opinion would be appreciated.
In case you are not familiar with the disclosure requirement referred to in this question, we recommend reading this short piece before proceeding.
Note that, in terms of disclosure of insurance information, there are two distinctive elements: one being an insurance statement to the effect of whether
the property is insured and if so the amount of policy excess relevant to the tenant’s liability for destruction/damage to the property and the second
being an offer to give the tenant a copy of the policy should the tenant request it.
We do not have privacy concerns over the first element. If the tenant is to be liable for careless damages, it stands to reason that the tenant is told
what their potential liabilities are at the outset. Transparency in this instance is, in our view, equitable and fair.
On the second element, we have some privacy concerns. Our primary consideration is that, in general, policy wordings are generic and tend to be available
to the public either from the insurer’s website or on request by anyone who contacts an insurance company. We also note the subtly of the statutory
wording that the policy is to be made available to tenants only upon request. The landlord is not being made...
