Renters Insurance

Renters Insurance – Convenience or Necessity?

Most people who rent apartments do not realize that they need to have their own renters insurance. Only about 1 in four renters actually obtain renters insurance policies. Why such a low percentage?

Many renter’s mistakenly believe that their landlord has landlord insurance that covers them also. This is almost always incorrect. Landlord insurance coverage is for the building coverage including electric and plumbing. They do not purchase coverage for the renter’s personal property or the renter’s liability (if someone is injured on the premises.) The landlord insurance policy is bought to purely protect the landlord and not the renter. You need to get yourself some affordable renters insurance and forget about the landlord insurance.

What could happen?

A fire begins in the apartment next to yours and reaches your apartment causing some damage. The person renting that apartment did not have renters insurance coverage. You also don’t have renters insurance coverage so you will most likely end up having to pay for any damage to your personal property. If you had affordable renters insurance, you would receive a check regardless of who is at fault or who was covered by insurance.

You have a guest who trips and falls in your kitchen because you had dropped some ice by accident. The guest hits their head on a counter and ends up in the hospital with a brain injury. The guest doesn't have any health insurance. You don’t have any liability insurance so this means that if the guest decides to sue you, you will have to pay everything out of pocket. Without health insurance coverage, your guest may have no choice but to sue you.

A burglar breaks into your apartment and steals your computer, flat screen tv and some jewelry and clothing. Your brand new triathalon bike was taken also. It was around a $10,000 claim. You do not have renters insurance so that means that you will have to replace everything that was stolen.

Other possible potential claims that renters face are: water damage that is caused by the renter, accidents at parties, pets who bite and lawsuits by their own landlord, and too many other things to name here.

Types of Policies

I would highly suggest that you get affordable renters insurance with replacement cost coverage. The difference in premium between a basic policy and one with replacement coverage is negligible. A basic policy is only going to pay for the actual cash value at the time the claim occurred. The depreciation of most people’s contents is very in today’s world. Electronic items like computers and flat screen televisions depreciate very quickly. It is much better to get replacement cost coverage and go with a higher deductible in order to keep costs on line, then to just have a basic policy.

Renters insurance does not usually cover flood or earthquake damage. You should be able to obtain coverage for these catastrophe’s but your agent will need to look into other ways of doing this. If you have expensive jewelry, antiques, furs, or valuable collections, please let your agent know because those types of items will need to be insured differently also.

The landlord insurance policy will not provide coverage for the renter. The renter needs to buy affordable renters insurance so that they can protect themselves. We sell very affordable renters insurance with many of our companies.