What is fair rental value coverage, and how much do I need?
It is business income cover for a landlord: the rent that stops arriving while the property cannot be occupied after a covered loss. The two things owners get wrong are the amount and the period. The amount should be gross rent less any expenses that genuinely stop — not net profit — and the period has to reflect how long a rebuild actually takes, including permits and code upgrades, which on a serious loss is far longer than the twelve months most policies default to.
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The detail
Fair rental value and business income cover are limited by a period of restoration, which runs until the property should reasonably be repaired — a period that can extend well beyond a standard twelve-month limit on a major loss.
What this means for you
- Set the limit on GROSS rent less only the expenses that actually cease. Rates, insurance and debt service do not stop because the building is empty.
- Twelve months is usually too short on a serious loss. Permitting, code upgrades and contractor availability routinely push a rebuild past a year.
- Include a lease-up period if you can. Rent does not resume the day the building is finished — it resumes when tenants return.
- Check for a coinsurance clause on this cover too. It works the same way against your projected annual rent and is missed far more often than the building one.
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Related questions
- Is this the same as business income?
- It is business income for a property owner, and the terminology differs by form. On a commercial policy it is usually written as business income including rental value; on a dwelling fire policy it appears as fair rental value. The mechanism is identical — income lost during the period of restoration after a covered loss — and the common defect is identical too, which is a limit set from a rough guess rather than from the rent roll.
- How business income cover works
- What is extended period of indemnity?
- An extension that continues the cover after the building is repaired, while you re-let it. Without it, cover stops the day the property is habitable — which assumes tenants are waiting at the door. In reality a commercial unit can take months to re-let after a long closure, and that gap is entirely uninsured unless you buy the extension. It is inexpensive and routinely omitted.
- Does it pay if the tenant simply stops paying?
- No. This responds only to loss of rent caused by physical damage from a covered peril. A tenant defaulting, going out of business or disputing the lease is a credit and legal problem, not an insured one — and there is no ordinary commercial product that fills it. Landlords occasionally assume rent cover is a rent guarantee; it is not, and the distinction is worth being clear about before it comes up.
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Written by the licensed brokers at Boring Insurance. Last updated 2026-08-22. See all guides.