Renters Insurance From Cothran Insurance
If you rent an apartment, house, condo, townhome or mobile home, Renters Insurance is a great way to protect your personal belongings as well as protect you from liability. And the best part is that you can get renters insurance for as little as $10 per month.
Many people assume that the landlord will cover their personal belongings if a fire or some other cause damages their stuff. However, the reality is that landlord insurance covers the building and their liability associated with owning the building.
Covering your stuff from sudden and accidental damage is your responsibility. If, for example, covered water damage were to occur such as a pipe bursting, the landlord’s insurance policy would pay to repair the building and your renters insurance would provide personal property coverage to replace your damaged items.
However, Renters insurance covers so much more than just your personal belongings. It also provides liability coverage, medical payments and pays for temporary living expenses.
How Much Does Renters Insurance Cost
The cost of Renters Insurance is dependent upon many things, but I’ve seen it as low as $10 per month with the average cost of renters insurance around $12 to $15 per month. Regardless, Renters insurance is extremely cheap, especially when you bundle it with your auto insurance. Also, we have many different insurance companies that we write renters insurance through which allows us to get you the most coverage at the lowest price.
Is Renters Insurance Required
A lot of landlords are now requiring that their tenants obtain renters insurance coverage. The reason for this is to protect the landlord in the event that a tenant causes damage to the building such as in my fire example. The landlord doesn’t want to have to rely on their insurance on the building for damage caused by someone else’s negligence, thereby making the landlord’s insurance premiums go up.
They also want to make sure that if someone is hurt on their property due to a tenant’s negligence, such as leaving out a skateboard that someone trips over, that the tenant has liability coverage to pay for any lawsuits that may result.
How Renters Coverages Work Together
Example 1:
Let’s say that you are renting an apartment and you start a kitchen fire that gets out of control that damages your apartment. The landlord’s insurance policy will cover the damages to the building.
But you will have to rely on your renters insurance coverage to cover damages to your personal effects. This will be paid under your “Personal Property” coverage on your renters insurance policy.
Also, your renters insurance policy will cover the cost to stay in a hotel as well as any increased cost in meals to eat out since you can no longer make meals at home. This is paid under the “Additional Living Expenses” coverage under the renters insurance policy.
Once the landlord’s insurance company pays for their damages, their insurance company will subrogate against your insurance company which is insurance jargon that means that they will sue your insurance company for all of the damages that they paid out for since you started the fire. Your insurance company will pay for those damages under your liability coverage of your policy.
Without renters insurance, you would have to pay out of pocket to replace all of your damaged personal belongings, your hotel costs, your increased cost for meals as well as the damages to the building.
Example 2:
If you have a guest over to your apartment and they were to slip on some water that you spilled on the floor, they may injure their back and incur some medical bills. The medical payments coverage on your renters insurance pays for medical bills for guests injured on your premises regardless of whether or not you are legally liable. They could have just tripped over their own feet and the medical payments coverage would pay for their medical bills.
If your medical payments limit wasn’t high enough to pay for all of their medical bills or if they decided to sue you for pain and suffering or lost wages because they had to miss work, the liability coverage on your renters insurance would cover damages that exceeded your medical payments limit if it was determined that you were legally liable for their injuries.
What Does Renters Insurance Not Cover
Renters insurance doesn’t cover damage from flood or earthquake but you can either purchase a separate policy or, depending on the insurance company, you may be able to add coverage with an endorsement to the policy.
Also, renters insurance policies typically only provide very low limits for theft of jewelry, watches, furs and guns. However, you can increase those limits or separately insure higher valued items on a separately policy, such as an engagement ring, if necessary.
Renters insurance also doesn’t adequately cover collectibles such as coin or stamp collections. Those would need to be insured on a policy called an Inland Marine or Personal Articles Floater.
Renters insurance coverage is a cheap and comprehensive way to protect your stuff, protect you against liability claims and pay for hotels and increased cost of meals if you are displaced from your home after a covered claim occurs.
Call us for a renters insurance quote today!
Other Coverages Available On Renters Insurance
- Earthquake
- Flood (Separate Policy)
- Water or Sewer Backup
- Personal Injury Liability
- Identity Theft
Other Products and Services We Provide
- Auto Insurance
- Homeowners Insurance
- Condo Insurance
- Mobile Home Insurance
- Business Insurance
- Motorcycle Insurance
- Boat Insurance
- Antique/Classic Car Insurance
- Personal Umbrella Insurance
Discounts Available
- Multi Policy Discount
- EFT or Automatic Payments Discount
- Discounts Above Vary By State and Insurance Companies.
- Coverages Are Subject To The Terms And Conditions Of The Policy Written and Exclusions May Apply.
- Premiums Are Subject To The Individual Characteristics Of Each Quote Provided.