[foogazi]

> a mortgage company may not be involved at all

You don’t need a mortgage/lender to carry insurance

[ceejayoz]

Sure, but if you don't have a mortgage/lender, there's no one to require you to carry insurance as a loan condition.

[foogazi]

Yes, it’s defined as self-insure

Anyway it sounds like the landlord did have insurance- they mention their rates going up, I guess it didn’t cover all of the damage