I have recently caused an accidental fire in the house I am renting. The owners property insurance company wants to pursue subrogation to collect the damages from me. The owner does not want his insurance company to do so. We had a provision in the lease that said each party is responsible to have insurance for their own interests in the property. Was that provision in the lease sufficient? If not, would it help if the owner would agree to sign an addendum to the original lease that stated something like:

"Landlord waives all subrogation rights of his property insurance company for the entire term of this lease agreement beginning on (original date) and including any damage since the beginning of the lease to the time of the termination of the lease."

Would such an addendum to the lease help me even though the accidental fire has already happened. ***by the way I would date this addendum the real current date, I am just wondering if such an addendum would be enforceable over the previous period of the lease especially as the owner does not want the insurance company pursue subrogation*** I am NOT talking about tampering with ANY documents in ANY way, just a REAL addendum which people can do with real estate contracts.

Thank you for any advice you can provide.

The owner's insurer paid his claim for damages, now they want to recover what they paid by suing you. Nothing you can put into the lease will change that. Your insurance company should be covering you.

We had a provision in the lease that said each party is responsible to have insurance for their own interests in the property. Was that provision in the lease sufficient?

Hello jc:

It was sufficient for HIM. It would have been sufficient for you too, had you followed it. It doesn't look like you did, or you would have made a claim, or the policy you bought didn't include liability...

Or, maybe you just didn't make your claim yet. Well, get ta claimin!

But, Scott is right. If you start messing with insurance documents AFTER the fact, they'll accuse you of insurance fraud and... Do I need to go further?

excon

(edited) PS> I see. You think that the building is HIS interest, and HE bought insurance to cover it. Nope. You had an interest in his building too, as you're finding out.

The owner's insurance can come after whoever they want to under the "subrogation" clause in the owner's policy. This clause can not be voided by the tenant since it is the owner who is providing their insurance co with the right for them to take his place in suing you.

You are not a party to the subrogation so you can't stop it and neither can the owner since it was in place the minute the insurance was placed on the property.

The owner's insurance has the right to come after you since it was your fault.