What you do with the house decides the policy.
The same three-bedroom ranch is four different insurance risks depending on what's happening inside it — a family on a year lease, a stream of weekend guests, an empty property mid-renovation, or an asset held in an LLC. The building never changed. The policy has to match where you actually are, and most landlord coverage problems are really occupancy problems nobody reported. Written with the Acuity auto and home package rather than sold on its own.
The short answer
A landlord policy insures the structure, the property you own inside it, your liability as the owner, and the rent you lose when a covered loss puts the place out of service. It does not insure your tenant's belongings — that's their renters policy, and it protects them, not you. The thing that most often breaks a landlord policy isn't the coverage, it's a change in occupancy nobody reported: a long vacancy, a switch to nightly rentals, or a deed moved into an LLC. With Acuity, landlord is a package line — available when auto and home are written together, not sold standalone.
Four properties. One building.
Every one of these is the same house. Each is a different risk, and a policy written for one of them isn't necessarily doing its job in another.
Tenant on a year lease
What a standard rental dwelling policy is built around: a household in residence, a lease term, a known occupant. Structure, your property inside it, owner liability, and loss of rents. This is the case everything else is measured against.
Nightly and weekend guests
Short-term rental is a different occupancy with a different liability profile, and it generally sits outside a standard landlord form unless it's been disclosed and specifically addressed. Around Bentonville and Rogers a great many properties have made this switch quietly.
Empty between tenants
Dwelling policies carry vacancy provisions, and past a defined period certain coverages can be restricted or suspended. Ordinary turnover usually isn't the issue. A renovation that ran long, or a slow season with no tenant, genuinely can be.
Held in an LLC
Owners move rentals into entities for liability reasons and routinely forget to tell anyone. A policy naming an individual over a deed naming an entity is a mismatch that surfaces at a claim rather than before one. Easy to fix, awkward to discover late.
Notice what all four have in common: none of them is a coverage you failed to buy. Each is a change in what the property is doing, and a policy that was correct the day it was written slowly stops matching reality. Nobody files a form when a lease ends and a listing goes up. That's why the single most useful thing a landlord can do is tell us when the use changes — before it changes, ideally. It's a two-minute call and it's the difference between an endorsement and an argument.
Four parts, and the third is the one owners skip.
Dwelling
The structure itself and what's attached to it, with the limit derived from rebuild cost rather than purchase price, market value, or the county assessment. Detached structures — a garage, a shed, a fence — are typically a separate limit.
Your property on site
Appliances, window coverings, a mower in the shed, and any furnishings you supply in a furnished rental. It's a much smaller limit than a homeowners policy carries, because the tenant's belongings aren't your problem to insure.
Loss of rents
Pays the rental income you lose while a covered loss makes the property uninhabitable. Repairs are one problem; four months of missing rent against an unchanged mortgage payment is another. Owners underestimate this constantly, because the clock includes adjusting the claim and getting on a contractor's schedule — not just the building work.
Liability as the property owner
Responds when someone is injured on the property and you're held responsible as the owner. It generally pays defense costs as well as damages, and it's the layer a personal umbrella can sit above — provided the rental is scheduled and its limit meets the attachment point.
One thing this page deliberately doesn't cover: how a roof claim settles. Arkansas has specific rules there, and they're worth understanding — but whether they apply to a rental dwelling form exactly as they apply to an owner-occupied one is a question to put to us directly rather than assume from a webpage. The roof rules, explained on the home page — then ask us how they read against your rental.
Your tenant's renters policy protects your tenant.
A renters policy covers the tenant's belongings and the tenant's liability. It doesn't insure your building and it doesn't respond when you're the one being held responsible. It is not, in any sense, coverage for you.
Requiring it is still worth doing. A tenant with coverage is far less likely to end up in a dispute with you after a fire or a burst pipe, and their liability coverage may respond if they caused the damage.
Many owners require a renters policy in the lease and ask to be named as an interested party, which means they're notified if it lapses. That's a lease term you set as the owner — it isn't imposed by insurance and it isn't something we can enforce for you. Send us the lease language and we'll tell you whether it's asking for something a policy can actually deliver.
Landlord rides on the auto and home package.
Said plainly, because a landlord is the reader most likely to want exactly one policy on exactly one house.
Landlord coverage is one of Acuity's package lines — available when your auto and home are written together with Acuity, and not sold on its own. If your personal insurance already sits with Acuity, that's straightforward, and it keeps the rental visible alongside everything else at one renewal, which is precisely when an occupancy change gets caught.
If you just want one policy on one rental house, this isn't the right fit, and that's fine. We represent carriers that write rental dwellings standalone — including owners with several properties — and we'll place it there without any fuss.
There's also a point where rentals stop being a personal-lines question altogether. As the number of properties and units grows, an account moves toward commercial forms — different coverage structure, different liability layer, different market. There's no clean line we can print here, because it depends on the properties, the structure of ownership, and the carrier. But if you're adding doors rather than maintaining one, say so early. Growing past a personal policy is a good problem; discovering it at a claim is not.
The edges landlords find the hard way.
Your tenant's belongings
Never covered, in any amount. Everything the tenant owns is theirs to insure, which is the entire argument for requiring a renters policy in the lease.
Unpaid rent and tenant damage
Loss of rents responds to a covered loss making the property uninhabitable — not to a tenant who stopped paying or left the place wrecked. Those are collection and deposit questions, not insurance ones.
Flood and earthquake
Excluded from standard dwelling forms exactly as they are from homeowners forms, and both are available separately. Arkansas sits close enough to the New Madrid seismic zone that earthquake is a real conversation.
Gradual damage
Seepage, long-running leaks, rot, and wear are maintenance rather than sudden accidental loss. On a property you don't live in, these are also the losses most likely to go unnoticed until they're large.
Not the same math as your own house.
We publish planning ranges for owner-occupied homes, and we deliberately don't apply them here — a rental is priced on a different basis and a band built on an owner-occupied house would tell you nothing useful. What actually drives it: the rebuild cost of the structure, roof age and material, construction type and protection class, the occupancy (long-term lease, short-term rental, or vacant), the deductible and liability limits selected, whether the property is furnished, claims history, and how the property is owned. This is a description of how the coverage is rated, not a quote and not a guarantee. Send the address, the lease or listing arrangement, and any current declarations page, and we'll build the real figure with you across our markets.
Where the rest of the account sits.
Acuity landlord insurance questions.
How is landlord insurance different from homeowners insurance?
They are built around different risks. A homeowners policy assumes you live in the house, so it carries a large limit for your personal belongings and liability for your household's everyday life. A landlord or rental dwelling policy assumes somebody else lives there.
It insures the structure and the property you own inside it, such as appliances and any furnishings you supply, and it carries liability for your exposure as the property owner. It generally adds loss of rents, which a homeowners policy has no reason to include. What it does not do is insure your tenant's belongings, and it is not a substitute for the tenant carrying their own policy.
Doesn't my tenant's renters policy protect me?
No. A renters policy covers the tenant's own belongings and the tenant's own liability. It is not coverage for you, it does not insure your building, and it does not respond when you are the one being held responsible as the owner.
What requiring it does accomplish is worth having anyway: a tenant with coverage is far less likely to end up in a dispute with you after a fire or a burst pipe, and their liability coverage may respond if they cause damage. Many owners require a policy in the lease and ask to be named as an interested party so they are notified if it lapses. That is a lease term you set, not something insurance imposes.
What is loss of rents coverage?
It pays the rental income you lose while a covered loss makes the property uninhabitable. If a kitchen fire puts a unit out of service for four months, the repairs are one problem and the four months of missing rent are another, and the mortgage does not pause for either. Loss of rents addresses the second one.
Owners consistently underestimate how long a property is genuinely out of service, because the clock includes adjusting the claim, getting on a contractor's schedule, and finding a new tenant, not just the construction itself. Terms, limits, and time periods vary by policy and apply as written in the policy issued.
What happens if the property sits vacant between tenants?
This is one of the most common ways owners lose coverage without realizing it. Standard dwelling policies contain vacancy provisions, and once a property has been vacant beyond a defined period, certain coverages can be restricted or suspended entirely.
A normal turnover between tenants is not usually the problem. A property emptied for a renovation that ran long, or one sitting unrented through a slow season, absolutely can be. The vacancy period and its effects vary by policy, so read yours or ask us. If a property is going to sit, tell us before it does rather than after something happens.
Does a landlord policy cover short-term rentals?
Generally not. A standard landlord or rental dwelling policy contemplates a tenant on a lease, not a stream of paying guests staying a few nights each. Short-term rental is a different occupancy and a different liability profile, and it usually sits outside the form unless it has been disclosed and specifically addressed.
This matters more in Northwest Arkansas than in most markets, because a great many properties around Bentonville and Rogers have quietly moved from long-term leases to nightly stays. Whatever coverage a booking platform advertises is its own arrangement and not a substitute for your policy. If the use has changed or is about to, tell us.
What if the property is owned by an LLC?
Then the named insured on the policy has to match how the property is actually held. Owners frequently move a rental into an LLC for liability reasons and never tell anyone, which can leave a policy naming an individual while the deed names an entity. That mismatch is exactly the kind of thing that surfaces at a claim rather than before one.
It is straightforward to fix and awkward to discover late. If the ownership structure has changed, or if you are planning to change it, that is a conversation to have with us and with your attorney before the paperwork is filed rather than afterward.
Can I buy Acuity landlord coverage on its own?
No. Landlord coverage is one of Acuity's package lines, available when your auto and home are written together with Acuity, and it is not sold standalone. For an owner whose personal insurance already sits with Acuity that is straightforward and keeps the rental visible alongside everything else at one renewal.
For an owner who simply wants one policy on one rental house, it is not the right fit, and that is fine. We represent carriers that write rental dwellings standalone, including owners with several properties, and we will place it there instead.
If our coverage explainers are useful, mark Cribb Insurance as a preferred source so more Northwest Arkansas property owners can find our local, plain-English guides.
Tell us what the property is actually doing.
Not what it was doing when the policy was written. Long-term lease, nightly stays, sitting empty, held personally or in an entity — that's the answer that decides whether your coverage still fits. Send the address and any current declarations page and we'll tell you plainly, then quote it against 40-plus carriers.
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. We are not Acuity, and this page is not endorsed, sponsored, reviewed, or approved by Acuity. "Acuity" is a trademark or service mark of ACUITY, A Mutual Insurance Company and its affiliates, used here nominatively to identify products we are appointed to place. Acuity's Arkansas rental dwelling policies are issued by Acuity-affiliated underwriting companies.
This page describes landlord and rental dwelling coverage in general, industry-standard terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price. Dwelling, other structures, the owner's property on the premises, loss of rents, owner liability, vacancy provisions, limits, deductibles, endorsements, and exclusions are set by the carrier, vary by state and by policy and over time, are subject to the carrier's underwriting approval and eligibility, and apply only as written in the policy actually issued to you. Vacancy periods and their effect on coverage differ by policy. Coverage for any property depends on its occupancy and use being disclosed to and accepted by the carrier.
Short-term rental use, changes in occupancy, extended vacancy, and changes in how a property is owned may affect coverage and generally must be disclosed to the carrier. Any protection offered by a booking or listing platform is that platform's own arrangement, is not provided by this agency or by the carrier, and is not a substitute for a policy. Statements about ownership structure are not legal or tax advice; consult your attorney before changing how a property is held.
Program structure described on this page — including that Acuity's personal umbrella, motorcycle, RV and motorhome, travel trailer, ATV and UTV, boat and watercraft, and landlord coverages are written under a package policy available when auto and home are written together — reflects the carrier's program as described to this agency, is subject to the carrier's rules, eligibility, and underwriting approval, may vary by state and by policy and over time, and is subject to change without notice.
Lease requirements, including any obligation for a tenant to carry renters insurance or to name the owner as an interested party, are set by the property owner and are not imposed or enforced by this agency. Flood and earthquake are excluded from standard dwelling forms and require separate coverage. Last reviewed August 2026.