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Return To: Renters Insurance – The Ultimate Guide
Are you about to rent a home or apartment? Are you renting or subletting a property now? If your answer to either one of these questions is yes, you need renters insurance.
Renters insurance does more than protect your belongings in your rental home. Having it also covers you from lawsuits, unnecessary expenses, and even the loss of your rental home’s use.
So, if you’re like the other 40 million Americans renting their homes, renters insurance is an essential thing to have! Besides, since 2009, premiums for renters insurance have been dipping.
Just look at the numbers below!
| Mean Renters Insurance Premium (2009) | Mean Renters Insurance Premium (2018 to Current) |
| $185.00 | $179.00 |
Are you thinking of buying renters insurance now? Before you take out your credit card, you’ll need to know about renters insurance coverage.
So, buckle up and keep reading to learn more about what you can get with renters insurance.
Renters Insurance: What Does It Cover?
You can think of renters insurance as a type of insurance that protects the renters of apartments or houses.
Unlike homeowners insurance, renters insurance covers your personal property and personal liability. It doesn’t cover the structure itself (that’s covered by homeowners insurance).
Renters insurance can give you and your family extensive coverage. What does renter insurance cover? Let’s get into each category in greater detail.
Personal Property
Protecting your personal property is why you need renters insurance in the first place. To get a better appreciation of this coverage, let’s compare renters insurance with homeowners insurance.
With homeowners insurance, everything from the property’s structure to its contents is protected. Who benefits from this? Well, the beneficiary is none other than the policy-holder—the owner of the home.
You might think that it works the same way for people who rent. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As a person renting the property, you don’t technically own your home. Your ownership extends only to your belongings. When something happens to the apartment or home you’re renting, your landlord’s property insurance coverage will take effect.
And this does not cover your possessions. For the protection of your belongings, you’ll need renters insurance.
Renters insurance covers your losses in the event of the following:
- Fire
- Theft
- Breaking and entering
- Lighting
- Storms
- Water damage (not a result of clogged drainages)
Additional Living Expenses
Renters insurance does more than just cover your personal property in case of loss or damage.
Imagine this scenario. You were at your apartment enjoying a cold one when all of a sudden a fire broke out. After the fire department put out the fire, your apartment unit has been reduced to a heap of charred wall fixtures and furniture.
If this happens, your renters insurance policy has your belongings covered (up to a certain amount). But do you know what else it covers?
Surely, you’ll have to stay somewhere else while the landlord fixes your place up. As we all know, hotels can be pretty steep in North Carolina. And we’re not talking about the incline of the driveway.
Somehow, you need to pay for your temporary accommodation. Instead of paying out of your pocket, the additional living coverage of renters insurance has you covered.
The coverage for additional living expenses covers:
- Accommodation fees or costs
- A portion of your normal living expenses
- Food expenses, including restaurant meals!
Personal Liability
There’s that old joke about liability and insurance: An agent once said to a policyholder that his insurance covers his guests slipping in the kitchen, not his guest hitting the floor!
Kidding aside, there will come a time when you’ll entertain visitors. In the course of a gathering, your unlucky guest might meet an accident within your rented home or apartment.
Can your guest sue you for everything you’ve got (even if the accident wasn’t your fault)? Absolutely! It happens all the time.
Is there a way to protect yourself legally? The good news is there is! This protection is renters insurance.
Renters insurance protects you from all possible liability should someone get injured within your home. The renters insurance coverage amount for liability protection covers:
- Fees for any reparations
- Legal fees if you go to an attorney
Medical Payments
Renters insurance also covers medical fees…just not yours. Someone who comes as a visitor or guest may be put in harm’s way. Whether it’s your pet or a banana peel, your rented home can be the site of an accident.
When one occurs, you’ll be glad you had renters insurance. Why? This is because renters insurance also covers hospital bills.
So, when you take your visitor to the emergency room, you won’t have to pay for their medical care. If you have to pay, the renters insurance coverage amount will be enough to reimburse you!
What Does Renters Insurance NOT Cover?
This is a question that comes up when fire, floods, and other hazards are thrown in the mix. In this section, we’ll go over the limits of renters insurance coverage.
Does Renters Insurance Cover Flooding? NO!
Renters insurance will cover damage to your personal belongings. The only exception is if the cause of damage or loss was a flood.
This is why you may want to have renters insurance along with flood coverage. With both, you can bet that you’ll be reimbursed for property damage and losses, no matter the cause!
Does Renters Insurance Cover Moving? Also a NO!
The coverage of renters insurance includes only the following:
- Personal property losses or damage
- Additional living expenses
- Personal liability
It does not cover moving. Then again, it really depends on what you mean by moving. If you mean living in another place while your apartment or home is being repaired, then yes. In fact, alternative living expense coverage takes care of this.
However, if you mean the entire process of packing up and moving to another home you’ll rent, understand that you won’t be covered.
Are You Renting a Property? Get Yourself Some Renters Insurance Now!
Renters insurance not only protects your valuables from damage or loss. It can also protect you from a lawsuit, and it can give you protection from having to fork out a lot of money when something happens to your home.
Getting renters insurance is key to your personal and financial security. With it being increasingly affordable, why wouldn’t you get some for yourself?
Are you interested in getting renters insurance? Talk to an insurance company worth its salt—an insurance company like us!
For all things insurance-related, get in touch with us here at ALLCHOICE Insurance, the insurance company in North Carolina that has every type of insurance you can think of!