Insurance and Maintenance: Protecting the Asset

Last lesson of the operating manual: protecting the thing you built. Two halves — the paperwork that protects it on bad days, and the maintenance rhythm that prevents most bad days.

Insurance — the three-layer stack for a rental ADU:

1. Tell your insurer you built it — and that it rents. The base move homeowners skip. An undisclosed rental unit is a claim-denial waiting to happen (and recall 13.1: coverage was half the reason to build permitted in the first place — the certificate and documents from 12.12 make this conversation easy). Depending on carrier, the answer is an endorsement to your homeowner's policy or a landlord/dwelling-fire policy structure covering the rental exposure; expect a modest premium bump (14.2's waterfall already budgeted it).
2. Liability sized to reality. A tenant on your property is permanent liability exposure — trip on the path, dog bite, the porch rail. Raise liability limits, and price a personal umbrella policy ($1M+ typically costs a few hundred dollars a year — the best value in the entire insurance industry for a landlord).
3. Require renter's insurance in the lease (14.1's checklist grows one line). It's cheap for the tenant, covers their belongings (your policy never did), and its liability component is the first responder in many incidents. Standard, expected, non-awkward.

Maintenance — the honest rhythm of a new building: years 1–3 run light (that's the new-construction dividend; the warranty from 12.13 covers real defects). The recurring calendar: mini-split filters (tenant-cleanable monthly-ish; professional service yearly — the single most neglected item in heat-pump-era units and the difference between a 15- and 25-year compressor), HPWH air filter and condensate line (7.8's equipment, annually), gutters and drainage (12.2's grading keeps working only if water keeps moving), caulk and paint touch-ups at year 3–5, and smoke/CO batteries on a schedule (with lease language on who does what — tenant swaps batteries, you verify annually at a proper-notice walkthrough, which doubles as your condition check).

The meta-tool for both halves: the file. The forever-folder from 12.12 — certificate, plans, warranties, lien releases — plus 12.9's open-wall photos, plus every receipt from here forward. Claims settle faster, warranty calls resolve cleaner, the eventual sale (14.4) appraises stronger, and the next owner inherits a documented asset. Documentation was the quiet theme of this entire course; it retires undefeated.