Attention Home Renters.. do you have insurance? (1 Viewer)

[Johnny_M]

I recently moved into a 50 yr old house that I am renting and it got me thinking, with all this expensive HT stuff I have, and all my other expensive hobbies, I wonder if I should be setting up renters insurance. It's an old house so I worry about fires and things like that, but its a very quiet neighborhood (mostly retired folks) so I'm too concerned about theft.

Do you guys have renters insurance? Or do you take your chances and hope for the best.

Johnny

 

[Pamela]

I have renters insurance. I pay around $240 for $30,000 in coverage. It gives me peace of mind.

 

[Johnny_M]

wow thats a good deal. i called 1 place and and they wanted about 350/year for only 20,000.

who are you using?


Johnny

 

[Kami]

Renters insurance is a requirement where I live.

I live with two room mates and we each have to pay $25/month, but it gives us $75,000 in coverage...we have a lot of expensive stuff between the 3 of us. This is in Canada too.

 

[mark alan]

If you are renting a house and someone slips on the icy sidewalk, guess who is potentially liable (hint, it ain't the landlord). Renters insurance will give you liability protection that you will want to have.

 

[Johnny_M]

well, we dont get much ice here in california, but i think i will look into getting the insurance regardless, its cheap enough I'd be crazy not too. My car ins. company does not offer it, any good recommendations of west coast companies that offer renters insurance by itself? many places (like AAA) want you to sign up with their other offerings also.

also, how do you generally prove what you own? do you need receipts for everything? that could be hard to dig up as I am not a good record keeper.

Johnny

 

[CRyan]

It amazes me at all those that do not have renters insurance. It costs so little and it covers so much really. I got mine through Nationwide - got a discount with having car insurance with them as well. Mine was only $180 a year for $20,000 coverage with $300,000 liability.

Anyway, simply take pictures of everything and keep a log of everything you own with serial numbers etc.

Get it.

C. Ryan

 

[Kevin Eckhardt]

Just like auto insurance renter's insurance premiums can vary for quite a number of reasons. What state/city/neighborhood you live in, the age and construction of the dwelling, proximity to fire and police stations, whether or not you have a security system, etc. You should call around and get quotes from several different companies.

You'll need to do an inventory of all of your belongings to figure out how much coverage you need to get. This doesn't need to be a listing of every single thing you own, but go through the house room by room and make a guess at how much would cost to replace your furniture, your kitchen appliances/plates/cups/etc, your clothing, books, CD's, HT equipment, etc. It often adds up to more than you think. To insure collectibles, antiques, artwork, jewelry and some other items above a certain amount you might have to add on additional coverages to the policy. Also you want to make sure that the insurance covers the replacement cost of your property and not its depreciated value (I think most polices cover replacement cost, but it's a good idea to make sure)

 

[Pamela]

Johnny, I use Mercury Insurance. I also have my auto insurance with them. I'm located in the L.A. area.

My insurance agent told me to make a spread sheet with everything I own, and include the serial numbers. He also told me to scan my receipts and take photos, then burn two CDs. One CD is kept at home and the other is in my desk drawer at work.

I just checked my policy, and it was $279.

 

[MikeH1]

I got $35 000 for about $175.00 Cdn a year. Time to renew by the end of this month too...

 

[Phil_L]

A landlord IS likely responsible if someone falls on the ice outside your home. The law in your state most likely imposes a statutory duty upon landlords to provide for the safety of their premises. If they fail to do so, they are liable. Inside your apartment, you could be liable for injuries to guests, however. You still need renter's insurance to cover your personal property.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

In an apartment complex, got renter's insurance for $12/m with State Farm. Covers $30k in personal property. It was so cheap that it would be stupid not to do it.

 

[Jim_F]

Yes, I had it when I lived in an apartment. Collected on a claim when I had smoke damage from a fire in another unit. Between that and my landlord's generous reimbursement for my inconvenience (free month rent and $300 to relocate-100' across the street) the disruption was pretty painless.

In the end, I paid more in over time than I got out, but if the situation had been worse, I would've been in dire straits without it.

 

[Dave_Brown]

If you are renting and don't have insurance GET IT! I went years without a policy and was very lucky nothing happened. I recently moved from an apartment to a house (still renting) and got a renters policy. Within two weeks of opening the policy, the house was burglarized while I was in the process of moving.
I was still living in the apartment and slowly moving things to the house and one day when I showed up, I found nearly everything I had taken out was stolen. Video game units, guitars, DVDs, games, stereo equipment, cordless phones, cigar boxes full of change. The insurance policy quickly became my best friend and I will even give kudos to the insurance company for being nothing but helpful, quick on the response and working with me to pick the "cash or replace" option. I took cash for things I could replace (DVDs, games, some stereo gear) and had them buy and ship the guitars as I bought them from out of state dealers and could not be replaced locally.

Don't wait for tragedy to strike, get a policy now. They are rather cheap and can make a huge difference. Best of all, even after my cliam my rates didn't increase on the policy.

 

[Philip_G]

I'm with dave. For the expense, it's just dumb not to have. I've had renter's policies as cheap as 5$ a month.

 

[Cam McFarland]

I had 4ft of water in my house from tropical Storm
Allison. Luckily I had flood insurance (yes it is seperate). Unfortunately, the amount you get for the contents, is tied to the amount you have on the house.
As it were, we stopped listing items at $40,000.00 as we
had already gone through the amount we could get back.

We would have to have gotten insurance on a house valued
AT LEAST 3 times what ours was to cover all the contents
lost....:frowning:


You dont realize how much it adds up till its gone....