Skip to content

Liability · Guide

Landlord liability in Miami-Dade: DP-3, premises, and the tenant who has no renters policy

A rental in Palmetto Bay is not a homeowners policy with a different mailing address. Owner-occupied forms punish landlords. Landlord forms assume someone else lives there. Liability is the part that shows up when a guest falls on the steps you meant to fix in June.

May 13, 2026 · 6 min read · Miami-Dade & Florida

Use the dwelling form, not a pretend HO-3

If you do not live in the house, you generally need a dwelling fire / landlord policy (often a DP-3) plus premises liability, or a landlord package. Keeping an HO-3 on a rented house is how claims get denied for occupancy. Tell us it is rented. Tell us if you still keep a room. Occupancy is a yes/no that underwriters treat as religion.

Condo rentals need the HO-6 (or landlord condo) plus the master. Short-term vs. long-term changes markets. Airbnb-style occupancy is not a 12-month tenant. We have different appetites for each.

Premises liability is the lawsuit policy

Pools, dogs, older stairs, poorly lit carports. Miami-Dade premises claims are ordinary until they are not. $300,000 is a weak landlord limit. $500,000 or $1 million, then an umbrella if the rest of the household supports it. The tenant’s renters policy — if they even have one — protects their stuff and their liability, not your building and not your net worth.

We can require renters insurance in the lease. We cannot make their policy pay your dwelling. Different insureds, different property.

Animal liability and breed lists

If the tenant has a dog, your landlord liability may exclude bites, or exclude certain breeds, or require a canine liability endorsement. Ask the tenant. Put it in the lease. Tell us. A “friendly pit mix” is still a question on an application.

Florida juries are not sentimental about warnings on the gate.

Loss of rents after a storm

If the house cannot be lived in after a covered loss, fair rental value / loss of rents is the line that replaces the check the tenant stopped sending. Flood is still a separate policy on a rental. Wind deductibles still apply. A Palmetto Bay rental that takes surge needs flood on the dwelling the same way your own house would.

We set loss-of-rents limits from actual leases, not from optimism.

How we bind a rental file

Address, occupancy, year built, roof, pool, dogs, lease term, and whether you live in Florida. Start a quote with home or liability — say it is a rental in the notes or on the call. An advisor will not let an HO-3 leave the building on a tenant-occupied house.

Questions we get

Next

If this sounds like your house, get a number.

Same desk that wrote the guide. Auto and home quote online. Other lines, an advisor.

Keep reading