I was given the other day a brochure which was offering open home insurance and open home security for Vendors, Landlord and Tenant…what the?

Apparenty most standard Home and Contents policies do not cover open homes.  So in a vast majority of cases any insurance you have is made void once you have “willingly invited people into your home”.  Thats exactly what the insurance companies deemed you to have done when you open your property for inspection.

So I did some digging and this is what I have found out and raises alot of questions about our duty of care.

Clause 61 sub section 2 of the Residential Tenancies Act states that the:

 “CTTT may on application by the tenant, order the landlord or the landlords agent to pay compensation to the tenant for damage to or loss of the tenant;s goods caused by any person in the exercised power of the landlord or landlords agent to enter the residential premises under this Act or the Residential tenancy agreement”

Recently an agent in Sydney was successfully sued by a tenant under this clause as the tribunal member deemed the agent to be the “Bailee of the Goods” when they had items go missing at an open home.

So what does this mean?  Should we be worried?  Should we be offering this insurance because it is a real agency risk?

The questions that come to mind for me are

-Whats our duty of care to our landords and tenants here?

-Who pays for the policy cover, landlord or tenant?

I would welcome people’s feedback about this and if anyone is offering this insurance at the moment and how you have incorparated this into your policies and procedures?