Im looking at renting part of the Bdlg I lease for boat and car storage. Have the owners approval and he has insurance on the Bdlg but not the contents. Im going to make sure everybody has insurance on there boats/cars and write up a lease agreement saying I can't be held responsible for damage. I just can't see that being good enough.

Im wondering if you have any added insurance in case a car/boat catches fire and then there insurance im guessing can come after you/me. I talked with my insurance and im waiting for a reply but im guessing there going to want VIN numbers, Sprinkler sytems, Ect. and its going to be costly.
Im trying to figure out how to do this and protect myself from worse case scenario.
Thanks

you will need a separate business policy..also FYI you cant insure what you don't own..if the building catches fire from faulty wiring then its your landlords issue, the easiest way to explain it is like a sandwich you are only responsible for the bread,everything inside it is the peoples responsibility..just make sure you have their insurance information and a good lease agreement..mine is 7 pages worth and make sure you put into the lease that they are 100% responsible for their own boat..also ask for a slip and fall clause in case lets say someone brings a child and they hurt them selves that that child is covered or a sign stating no children past this line..

i also make sure nothing is plugged in and ALL batteries
are disconnected and they are responsible for their own winterization..

most respectfully to Fixx, if you are thinking of doing this, consult a lawyer. Common law is not as expressed above, and each state has its own set of statutory laws as well. You may be liable for a fire, even if it is from faulty wiring if, for example, you or another subtenant causes the wiring to be faulty, or as sometimes required in commercial leases, the tenant is responsible for electrical systems. Have a lawyer review your lease and give you advice regarding your agreement with boat/car owners that lease space from you. You are contemplating a business venture so treat it as such, and part of your due diligence is to understand your obligations and exposures. Just my 2 cents.

Have each renter sign a rental agreement, can be very simple, and with in the agreement, state on BOLD letters that they are responsible for insuring/Hold Harmless, towards their property, Have them sign it. I always explained clearly that they could NOT work on their units once they are placed into storage so any thing they had to do to the unit, make sure it was done ahead of time.

I rented out for 15+ years when I had my old buildings, never had a problem. That being said, If you have a problem, you will get sued, it is today's mentality. The other thing I would do first, before you do all the rental agreements etc, have your operation set up as a LLC. It is simple, easy and inexpensive. This will be your first best defense to being sued personally...

Thanks for the info guys. My insurance is looking at wiring because they think I can be held liable for that here in OH.

Yes I planned on no batteries hooked up and no working on them.

I have my business set up as an LLC Should I be creating another for the storage part? Then can they be in the same Bdlg? Guess I will just put it under the business name.
Do you take pics or video of when it gets there? In case they say you put this scratch or dent in it.
Not sure if im looking to deep into this. Im sure alot of people just open there doors and worry about it when it happenes. Sucks in todays day with all the sue happy people/ lawyers.

Create a separate LLC for each individual property you are leasing/sub-leasing out. If you only have 1 LLC that is blanketing your interests it can and will be exposed. Talk to an experienced individual who can guide you thru Ohio's laws. I would never expose my business I have worked so long and hard for to an individual renting a storage space.

I mean this in the nicest way... If you are this paranoid about everything, you should probably not do it in the first place, You will NEVER sleep at night. It is not worth the hassle.

But for me, it was worth the work, I always had people I knew that stored with us, as soon as they heard about it, there was a waiting list. It was easy for us to turn down the "bad element" if we knew they could be a PITA. It was mainly sport cars, Corvettes, Porches and Ferrari's, with a few older muscle cars thrown in. A couple of boats, but I preferred the cars because I got basically the same amount of money and I could get 3 cars to every boat. We had them in tight!!! That also assured no one, could even get in between them to do anything during storage time. The key is once they are in, don't move anything... With the boats, the owners were always there when we placed them in...

I agree with this. Also, if you don't own the building outright I don't really think it's worth the money or the hassle.

Be careful, it is the landlords responsibility to make sure the storage facility is up to code standards. I doubt that 1% of the storage buildings out there that allow some type of vehicle storage are up to code standards. Now if an issue arises, guess what, the first thing they go after is verifying that the facility was up to code standards.

Your only protected a little more with a LLC IF...IF you run it, structure it, cross every T and dot every I like its an actual corporation, if you run it on paper like a sole proprietor, and get sued, a good lawyer will break through it and sue you just like a sole proprietor. But on the bright side you just paid extra money for some fake piece of mind, the gov't just made more money, and your accountant gets to charge more every year!