As of November 2026, the landlord’s repair duties come from the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and the city enforces its housing code on complaint. Expect a separate wind and hail deductible, often a percentage of the building’s insured value. Flood is always a separate policy, and the state’s Beach Pool covers only the Gulf end of Baldwin and Mobile counties.
What underwriters ask about a Birmingham apartment building
- Roof and wind historyRoof age, material and attachment, the last replacement, and every wind or hail claim with what was repaired.
- Where it sitsPleasant Grove, McDonald Chapel, Pratt City, Smithfield Estates, Fultondale and Center Point all appear in National Weather Service tornado surveys.
- Creek floodingWhether the building is in the floodplain of Village Creek or another stream, and whether it has taken water.
- Code enforcement recordOpen cases with the city’s Code Enforcement Division, and any condemnation notices on the property or its neighbors.
- SystemsWiring, plumbing, heating and cooling, with the year each was last updated.
The structure of the policy is the same as elsewhere (how an apartment program is put together). What changes in Birmingham is the list above.
Tornado history an underwriter already knows
The National Weather Service office in Birmingham keeps detailed surveys, and underwriters and their models read them.
- April 27, 2011The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado was rated EF-4 with estimated winds of 190 mph. Its path ran 80.68 miles and reached a mile and a half wide where it crossed Interstate 65. The survey records EF-4 damage in Concord and Pleasant Grove, a two-story apartment complex in Smithfield Estates that lost a large part of its roof, and damage in Fultondale before the tornado lifted northeast of downtown. The office counted 62 tornadoes in Alabama that day.
- April 8, 1998An F5 tornado tracked about 30 miles through Oak Grove, Concord, Pleasant Grove, Edgewater and McDonald’s Chapel and ended in Pratt City. The Weather Service noted that two or three more miles on the ground would have brought it to the high-rises downtown.
- January 23, 2012An EF-3 tornado with 150 mph winds struck the Center Point area before dawn, in a month most people do not think of as tornado season.
The Alabama Department of Insurance puts the state’s peak tornado season at March through May. For an apartment owner the practical point is that a roof here will be tested, and the insurer will want to see what is on the building now, not what was there at purchase.
Wind and hail deductibles, and why there is no wind pool here
The Alabama Department of Insurance tells policyholders to check for a special deductible for windstorm, hail or hurricane losses. Its guide explains that these are often shown as a dollar amount or as a percentage of the insured value, not a percentage of the loss. On an apartment schedule that distinction is large: a percentage applied to each building’s limit can exceed the cost of a new roof.
- Ask what the percentage equals. Get the wind and hail deductible stated as a figure for each building, and ask whether it applies per building or per occurrence.
- Ask how the roof is valued. Some policies pay actual cash value on older roofs or exclude cosmetic hail damage to metal.
- Carry code coverage. Rebuilding an older building triggers current code, and ordinance or law coverage pays for that difference.
- Size the rents coverage to a real rebuild. After a regional tornado outbreak, contractors are scarce and repairs take longer. How income coverage works.
Owners sometimes ask whether a state pool will take the wind if the regular market will not. Alabama’s pool is the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association, known as the Beach Pool. The Department of Insurance describes it as writing fire and extended coverage on homes and some commercial property in the beach areas of Baldwin and Mobile counties, plus a wind and hail only policy for property south of the 31st parallel in those two counties. The Association’s own eligibility tool rejects any address above that line. Birmingham is far north of it, so a hard-to-place building here goes to the surplus lines market, not to a pool.
Alabama’s landlord-tenant act and city code enforcement
Section 35-9A-204 of the Code of Alabama requires a landlord to comply with building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety, make the repairs needed to keep the premises habitable, keep common areas clean and safe, and maintain the electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems and any elevators the landlord supplies. The landlord must also provide for garbage removal and supply running water, reasonable amounts of hot water and reasonable heat, with an exception where those are under the tenant’s exclusive control.
- Local rental ordinances are superseded. Section 35-9A-121 says no county or municipal ordinance about residential landlords, rental housing codes or landlord-tenant rights may be enacted or enforced. Cities may still enforce building codes, health codes and other general laws that equally affect similar owner-occupied homes.
- No rent control. Section 11-80-8.1 bars local governments from enacting or enforcing any rule that would control the rent charged for private property. Loss of rents coverage is sized to your actual leases.
- Enforcement is by complaint. Birmingham’s Code Enforcement Division, which has combined zoning, housing, condemnation and demolition, and environmental enforcement since July 2022, sends an inspector after a 311 complaint. Cases that are charged are heard in the city’s Environmental Court.
Because of that state rule, an underwriter looking at a Birmingham building asks for the code enforcement history, and I do not expect a rental inspection certificate. An open housing case, or a condemned structure next door, is worth explaining in the submission. Liability for tenant and guest injuries is where those conditions end up, and I usually pair the primary policy with an umbrella.
Village Creek and flood insurance
FEMA’s loss avoidance study of Birmingham says numerous neighborhoods sit in the floodway and floodplain of Village Creek, that its floodplain held roughly 4,574 residential dwellings and 196 commercial or industrial structures, and that the creek had flooded those neighborhoods more than 20 times in the 20 years before the study. The study covers 735 property acquisitions along the creek, including in the Ensley community, carried out by the city with the Army Corps of Engineers and later with FEMA grants.
- Flood is a separate policy. A commercial property policy on an apartment building excludes flood. It is bought separately through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer. How flood insurance works.
- Do not wait for the forecast. The city reminds owners that most flood policies have a 30-day waiting period before coverage starts.
- Work in the floodplain needs a permit. The city adopted floodplain provisions in its zoning ordinance in October 1995, and development in the regulatory floodplain requires a floodplain development permit.
- The city’s rating helps. Birmingham says it holds a Class 5 rating in the NFIP Community Rating System, which lowers NFIP premiums for owners in the city.
Send me the flood zone and an elevation certificate if one exists. The city’s floodplain office keeps maps and can help locate certificates.
What to send me
- Address, year built, stories and unit count, with construction type for each building.
- Roof details by building: age, material, last replacement and any wind-mitigation work.
- Current declarations pages and five years of loss runs, with what was repaired after each wind, hail or water claim.
- The current rent roll and a recent operating statement.
- System updates with years: wiring, plumbing, heating and cooling, water heaters, and alarms or sprinklers if present.
- Code enforcement history: any open city cases and how they were resolved.
- Flood information: the flood zone, an elevation certificate if you have one, and any past water in the building.
Common questions
Who insures apartment buildings in Birmingham, AL?
Standard and specialty insurers write them when the roof, system updates and loss history are documented. As an independent broker I take the building to the markets that fit it, including surplus lines when the standard market declines.
Why did my apartment building insurance go up in Birmingham?
Wind and hail drive it. Jefferson County has documented violent tornado tracks, and insurers respond with higher rates, percentage wind and hail deductibles and closer attention to roof age.
Does apartment building insurance in Birmingham cover tornado damage?
Wind is normally a covered cause of loss on a commercial property policy, but it may carry its own deductible. Check whether that deductible is a flat amount or a percentage of each building’s insured value.
Can a Birmingham apartment building use the Alabama Beach Pool?
No. The Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association writes only in the coastal parts of Baldwin and Mobile counties, south of the 31st parallel for its wind and hail policy.
Does my Birmingham apartment policy cover flooding from Village Creek?
No. Flood is excluded from commercial property policies and is bought separately through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, usually with a waiting period.
Is there rent control in Birmingham, Alabama?
No. Alabama Code section 11-80-8.1 prohibits local governments from controlling the rent charged for private property.
General information about insuring rental apartment buildings in the City of Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama as of November 2026, not legal advice. State landlord-tenant law, city codes, flood maps and Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association territories change; confirm your building’s obligations with the City of Birmingham, the Alabama Department of Insurance and counsel. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.