Renters Insurance – These policies provide protection against the loss and/or destruction of personal belongings and possessions, and you should consider this insurance whether you are renting a house or an apartment.  

Premiums are not overly expensive because they do not have to cover the structure – only your belongings and the items you store and use inside the apartment or house you rent.

Your renters insurance will also cover liability to visitors who may be injured or sustain damage to their property while on the premises. 

If there is a fire in your rented apartment or home, your policy will cover your living expenses while you and your family are displaced from the damaged unit or house.

You can get policies that reimburse the ‘actual cash value (ACV) less depreciation, or policies that cover ‘replacement cost’ up to the limit of your policy, with no deduction for depreciation. 

Just as with a homeowner’s policy, a renter can obtain a policy to cover additional items like jewelry or expensive antiques.  We will talk about these ‘rider’ or ‘floater’ policies later.

If you are still wondering whether you need insurance on your home or apartment, consider this:

Ø      95% of homeowners purchased homeowner’s insurance on their home, condo or co-op.

Ø      64% of tenants and renters purchased rental insurance on their rented house or apartment. 

Research often shows that the reason most renters do not obtain an insurance policy is that they do not know that such policies are available or they believe they are covered under the policy carried by the owner of the building. 

Before we leave the topic of homeowner and tenant insurance, we should touch on insurance reviews.  

If you already have a policy in place and you have had the policy for a while, you should think about pulling that policy out of the drawer and looking at it to see if it is still adequate for your needs. 

There are some instances in which an insurance review is recommended:

Whenever you renew your policy – look at the policy carefully to be sure that you don’t need to make any changes. 

Don’t just pay the bill and put the new copy of the policy in the drawer.

Ø      Whenever you buy an item of value (expensive jewelry, antiques etc) or add onto your home, make improvements, or upgrade your home in any meaningful way to increase the value of the structure or the possessions inside the structure.

Ø      When you add security systems, fire and burglar alarms or sprinkler systems, or replace plumbing or heating systems, or electrical wiring (you are usually eligible for a discount on your premium so be sure you investigate this).

Ø      When you get married, divorced, add tenants or adults to your home or lose tenants or adults from your home. 

Ø      When you sell valuable items (don’t forget to cancel riders or additional insurance policies you carry on these items).

Ø      If you start a business at home and store inventory, buy equipment to run your business or have employees or customers or suppliers visiting your home to do business. 

In this case, you may want to obtain a Business Policy with specific business coverage.