Insurance Premiums

Insurance agencies in Michigan report that some insurers, although not necessarily all, give a credit or premium reduction for either or both the landlord or renter on their property/liability insurance if they do not allow smoking in their apartment building (landlord) or their apartment (renter).

Why not discuss obtaining such premium reductions with your insurance agent? Among the possibilities are the following:

	Check with your insurer to determine whether your current policy includes a penalty (explicit or hidden) if you don't presently have a smoke-free policy in your tenant's leases.
	Seek a "credit" for having a smoke-free apartment policy, since some insurers automatically add a "debit" to the premium unless they are shown that leases for the apartment building require all apartments to be smoke-free. One insurance agent stated that she had seen credits of as much as 5% to 10% of the premium.
	Seek a premium reduction since some insurers may, in recent years, have dropped a number of "premium perks" due to unrelated losses in the insurance business. Since the smoke-free apartment credit "perk" may have been dropped by some insurers, but not others, you should negotiate for its being included, inasmuch smoke-free apartment policies reduce the likelihood of fires and other cigarette-caused damages.

Credits or insurance premium reductions for smoke-free apartment policies apparently were quite common not long ago. Since nothing has changed to make such credits actuarially or financially less reasonable, you really should make this a priority for discussion and negotiation with your insurer.