What happens if appliances break at a rental unit or house you rent out?

Savvy landlords are forward thinkers, which is how they’ve landed an apartment complex or single-family dwelling as an investment property. Landlords run the numbers, estimating expenses to learn if purchasing property and renting it out is a good idea. Once they pull the trigger to own and operate, the hard work begins.

A landlord anticipates what could go wrong and prepares for the worse to head it off before it happens.

Perceptive landlords might purchase a home warranty plan for protection, which is a great idea, and of course, homeowners’ insurance is a given. Lending institutions won’t approve a mortgage without it, but insurance only protects your investment after the fact, for instance, following a destructive act of God. Homeowners’ insurance can’t eliminate the inconvenience that accompanies the disruption, and very few products help protect a rental property before the unavoidable occurs. The SurgeShield® program, offered by FPL Home, does.

The SurgeShield program places a state-of-the-art surge protector directly at the electric meter of your rental property. The device helps to protect appliances and systems from damages incurred by power surges that can enter your home through your electric meter. Unlike plug-in surge protectors, the SurgeShield device helps to keep surges from entering the property through its electrical wiring and can help protect against larger power surges.

If lightning strikes near the rental property, sending a power surge through the electric meter, it could destroy one or all of the appliances inside the house or multi-unit apartments, and the cost to repair or replace them may be substantial. Maintaining air conditioners and major appliances is a massive task for a landlord. Every day that an appliance is down could negatively influence a renter when it’s time to re-sign a lease or pay rent. Stopping the surge from entering is the best way to avoid this scenario.

Landlords who enroll in the SurgeShield program help protect their appliances and the potential loss of rent revenue. If the SurgeShield device fails to operate correctly and damage occurs to appliances from a power surge through the electric meter, then the landlord is also covered by a $5000 limited manufacturer’s warranty per covered appliance per occurance.

Call 800-811-9216 for more information on how to help protect your investment property from damaging power surges.