Apartment building insurance in Richmond

What underwriters ask about a Richmond apartment building

• State maintenance dutiesThe Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act lists what the owner must keep in working order, from wiring and plumbing to elevators.
• Rental inspection districtsRichmond adopted a Residential Rental Inspection Program in November 2025. A building is inspected under it only if the Council has designated its parcel.
• Code enforcement recordNotices of violation from the city’s property maintenance inspectors, and how each was closed.
• Water, two kindsThe James River, and flash flooding from heavy rain. A commercial property policy covers neither.
• Brick and ageYear built, masonry type, and the years of the wiring, plumbing, heating and roof updates.

The coverages themselves are the ones every apartment owner buys (how an apartment program is put together). The rest of this page is the Richmond part.

What Virginia’s landlord-tenant act requires

Section 55.1-1220 of the Code of Virginia is the habitability standard a liability claim against a Richmond landlord gets measured against. The landlord must:

• Comply with building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety, and make the repairs needed to keep the premises fit and habitable.
• Keep common areas shared by two or more units clean and structurally safe.
• Maintain the systems in good and safe working order: electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioning and elevators.
• Prevent moisture and mold. Where there is visible mold, the landlord must promptly remediate it and reinspect the unit.
• Supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times, and heat in season, unless the unit’s own equipment is in the tenant’s exclusive control.
• Certify the smoke alarms. The tenant gets a certificate that all smoke alarms are present, inspected and working, no more than once every twelve months.

The same section limits the landlord’s liability to the tenant’s actual damages proximately caused by a failure to exercise ordinary care. A separate section requires the move-in inspection report to say whether there is visible mold; if there is, the tenant may walk away, and if the tenant stays the landlord has five business days to remediate. Mold is commonly excluded or capped on property and liability policies, so the remediation file is what I show an underwriter.

Virginia also lets a landlord require renter’s insurance as a condition of tenancy, with written notice that the tenant may buy a separate policy of their own. Underwriters like to see that in the lease. Renters insurance in Virginia.

Richmond’s rental inspection program

Virginia does not allow a city to inspect every rental. Under Code section 36-105.1:1 a locality may inspect rental units only inside a rental inspection district, drawn after the governing body finds that the units are blighted or deteriorating or need inspection to prevent it, and the statute says it does not authorize locality-wide districts. The ordinance may not require registration or charge a fee for the owner’s written notification.

Richmond’s City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 2025-161, establishing a Residential Rental Inspection Program, in November 2025. The city’s announcement was plain about its limits: the ordinance does not itself designate any district, and creating one takes a separate Council action after review of factors such as building code or health violations, public safety responses or tenant petitions. A district can be as small as a specific parcel. As of November 2026, ask the city whether your address has been designated; I could not confirm a list.

• SamplingIn a multifamily development of more than ten units, the building department inspects a sample of at least two and no more than ten percent of the units, and may go further if it finds violations.
• FrequencyAfter the initial inspection, no more than once each calendar year.
• Clean resultA unit with no violations affecting safe, decent and sanitary living conditions is exempt for at least four years. The exemption can be revoked if the unit falls out of compliance.

A designation is public and follows the building. If your parcel is named, the inspection report and the exemption letter belong in the submission.

The James River, the floodwall and flash floods

Richmond’s floodwall was completed in 1995. The city’s Department of Public Utilities says the section north of the James is 4,277 feet long and protects 150 acres of Shockoe Valley, running from 12th and Byrd streets to 21st and East Cary; the south side is 13,046 feet long and protects 600 acres, from Goodes Street to just west of the Manchester Bridge.

The wall addresses the river. It does not address rain. When Gaston moved through southeastern Virginia on August 30, 2004, the National Hurricane Center recorded more than twelve inches at two Richmond locations, most of it within eight hours, and flash floods in the Richmond area directly caused eight deaths. A year earlier Isabel pushed a surge of 8.5 feet above normal up the James to the Richmond city locks.

None of that water is covered by a commercial property policy. The Bureau of Insurance’s commercial guide says flood is not covered under most property policies and is sold through the National Flood Insurance Program. Flood is a separate policy, and sewer or drain backup is a separate endorsement. For a building in Shockoe Bottom, Manchester or any low ground I ask for the flood zone, an elevation certificate if one exists, and what sits below grade. Flood coverage for buildings · Virginia flood risk and the NFIP.

Old brick, the 2011 earthquake and the 2025 water outage

On August 23, 2011 a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Mineral, about 65 kilometers northwest of Richmond. The U.S. Geological Survey notes that much of the structural damage was confined to brick buildings and unreinforced masonry, which is why an underwriter asks what an older brick building’s walls are made of. Earthquake is excluded from standard property policies; the Bureau of Insurance says it is usually added by endorsement, generally with a deductible that is a percentage of the value of the damaged property.

• Masonry: whether the walls are reinforced, and the condition of parapets and chimneys.
• Systems with years: wiring and panels, supply and drain lines, boilers and roofs. Equipment breakdown coverage picks up boilers and electrical gear that property coverage leaves out.
• Code upgrades: repairing an old building after a fire can trigger current code. Ordinance or law coverage pays for that difference.
• Loss of city water: the January 2025 water crisis, which the state health department examined along with the needs of the city’s water treatment plant, was a reminder that the statute still expects running water. Coverage for an off-premises utility failure is an endorsement with its own conditions; ask whether you have it.

After a fire: leases, rent and the 2027 rule change

Loss of rents coverage replaces the rent a damaged unit stops producing. Under section 55.1-1240, when fire or casualty substantially impairs a unit, either side may end the lease, and rent is prorated as of the date of the casualty. Through December 31, 2026 the notice period is fourteen days.

On January 1, 2027 the section changes. The notice period becomes twenty-one days, and before a landlord can terminate, the landlord must meet or reasonably try to meet with the tenant about alternatives and determine whether a substantially similar unit in the same complex is available, offering it on the current lease terms if so. For a multi-building owner that means part of the rent roll may move rather than disappear. Size the loss of rents limit to the real rent roll and a realistic rebuild time. How income coverage works.

If the regular market says no

The Virginia Property Insurance Association was formed in 1968 and provides dwelling and commercial property coverage to owners who cannot find it in the voluntary market. Its commercial manual lists apartment houses among the eligible habitational risks. The Bureau of Insurance describes the coverage as fire, lightning, windstorm, hail, explosion, riot, smoke and vandalism, says liability and theft are not available through the Association, and calls it a last resort because the premium is generally higher and the coverage more limited. The Association says it does not renew automatically; the owner reapplies each year, and it typically reinspects commercial risks about every four years.

Between the standard market and the Association sits surplus lines. The Bureau notes those insurers do not file rates and forms with it and are not backed by the state guaranty association, so the policy has to be read line by line. Either way, liability for the building is placed separately.

What to send me

• Address, year built, stories and unit count, with construction type and any store on the ground floor.
• City paperwork: any rental inspection district notice, inspection report or exemption, and open or closed code violation notices.
• The current rent roll and a recent operating statement.
• Current declarations pages and five years of loss runs, with what was repaired after each claim.
• System updates with years: roof, wiring, plumbing, heating, and alarms or sprinklers if present.
• Your smoke alarm certificates and any mold remediation records.
• The lease form, showing whether renter’s insurance is required.
• Flood information: the flood zone, an elevation certificate if you have one, and what is in the basement.

Common questions

General information about insuring rental apartment buildings in the City of Richmond, Virginia as of November 2026, not legal advice. The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the city’s rental inspection program and any designated districts, floodplain maps and Virginia Property Insurance Association rules change; confirm your building’s obligations with the City of Richmond, the Virginia Bureau of Insurance and counsel. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.