Does loss of rents cover economic vacancy or non-payment of rent in Georgia?

No. Loss of rents coverage does not pay for economic vacancy or non-payment of rent in Georgia. This coverage only replaces rental income that you lose because a covered physical loss, like a fire or storm, made units uninhabitable. It is not protection against tenants who simply stop paying or against units that sit empty in a soft market.

Loss of rents, sometimes called rental value or business income for landlords, is tied directly to property damage. It answers a specific question: if a covered event forces tenants out while repairs are made, who replaces the rent you would have collected? The answer is the policy, for the time it reasonably takes to restore the building.

Loss-of-rents pays for covered-loss vacancies, not ordinary ones:

• Covered: lost rent while units are unrentable because of a covered loss such as fire, lightning, or windstorm damage.
• Not covered: a tenant who breaks the lease or refuses to pay rent.
• Not covered: normal vacancy, slow leasing, or rent you cannot collect because the market is weak.

For example, a fire damages a 12-unit Columbus building and forces all tenants out for five months of repairs. With $180,000 in annual rent, loss of rents coverage can replace roughly $75,000 of income during the rebuild. But if one tenant in an undamaged building simply stops paying, that is a landlord-tenant matter, not an insurance claim.

If protecting your rental income matters to you, the trigger and the time limit on this coverage are worth reviewing closely. We can explain how your landlord insurance loss of rents works. Request a free coverage review and a licensed advisor will confirm whether your income protection is set up correctly.