I'm debating getting renter's insurance at my new apartment, and just wanted to see who all has/had it. Thoughts?

I've rented previously and haven't had it before because it was never required and I just thought of it as an extra expense, but I'm starting to consider it now.

Is it worth it?

I was just thinking that it'd be good to have especially if something were to happen..then I'd be taken care of. But also, my experience with insurance companies in the past is kind of..well..crap.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

I remember seeing those people on the news whose building burnt down and were left with nothing. I always thought that they should have gotten insurance!

Then I realized I was in the exact same situation. I rent a place and if I were to accidently start a fire, I would have to pay millions of dollars. Old buildings burn so fast. And when 25 people share a building, fire hazard is much greater. One time, my roomate left the oven on and left the appartment. I thought, this is it. I'm not gonna worry that she is gonna be so carefree. I got an insurance for 30$ a month. My belongings are covered to up to 10 000$ and the building for up to 2 million.

Wow, that's pretty cheap..and covers a lot! I checked around online and that's also what I seemed to find (similar rates and coverage).

Yes it is worth it. In fact as a landlord in a campus area condo that I rent out in another state, I require my tenants to have it and to have it with a clause for relocation. (I am an absentee landlord/owner of a unit I bought when my own kids were in school at this campus and the day to day operations are handled by a management company.)

This is especially true with condos. If a condo burns there are numerous insurances which come into play. The condo association has insurance on the building. I as an owner have insurance for my interest in it, but legally I don't "own" my unit, I own a calculated decimal percentage of the condo building and have exclusive use of "my" unit, roughly 1/24 of the 24 unit building.

Settling a claim on something as complicated as this takes time and you need protection in case you have to relocate, not to mention your possessions in the condo.

It is usually pretty inexpensive. Even my insurance as an owner, which includes liability, only costs me $130/year.

You need also coverage for theft and depending upon your insurance this can also include property away from the rental unit, the same as home owner's insurance has.

It also covers you for some liability (be sure to read this). I have a clause in my lease that the lessee cannot have a water bed in my unit. If you were to violate that and put in a water bed and it breaks and flood the unit below mine, or if the weight of the waterbed caves in the floor and you end up one floor below mine, I could sue you for damages.

Jon

Check with the company you get car insurance through to see if you can get discounted renter's insurance if you get it through them. We have both car insurance and renter's insurance through Erie, and our renter's insurance is about $15 a month. Totally worth the peace of mind of knowing that we can get compensation if something catastrophic were to happen to our belongings.

Check with your parent's homeowner's insurance. The one my former roommate's parents had said they would cover the apartment as long as she didn't change her permanent address (ie her drivers license, voters registration etc.) Now that I have a new roommate that is something we have to talk about because my parent's insurance won't cover it ( which I actually just found out, we thought it did, it did for my college dorm though and paid for my camera and phone when they were stolen, perhaps its an age thing as my former roommate was only 21 and still "college age")

Renter's is SO cheap there's no excuse not to have it. Like Jonelle, I get my renter's and auto insurance through State Farm, so with the multi-policy discount it's something like $12 a month. That's less than a meal out. Totally worth it!

Dani

When I moved into my flat, I had the same discussion with my dad, and he said "if something happened and you were to lose all your possessions (fire, theft, whatever), how much would it cost to replace it all?". When you think about it like that, it's a total no-brainer.

We factored the cost of insurance in when we were thinking about our monthly expenses, so we don't really notice it.

I talked with an agent with my current car insurance company, and he said I do get a discount for using them for both. The discount applies to my car insurance, which is pretty exciting (10%).

It's also $19/mo for the first month and then like 9 each month after. ($114/yr)
2500 in personal property (furniture etc)
personal liability--up to 100,000
medical coverage--$1000
and a 1000 deductible.

I think that all sounds good. $2500 seems kind of low for personal property though...Either way, it's better than having to pay for it all out of pocket.
Anyway, I haven't agreed to anything yet, I just wanted to get a price estimate.

2500 does seem low. Take a computer, tv, bed and couch and you would be close to that already.

Before hubby and I became homeowners we rented a house and a fire started in the garage (arson, long story). He lost his beloved Alpha Romeo Spyder, I lost my WEDDING GOWN. We had renter's insurance and were compensated. However, we were treated suspiciously because it was arson (we couldn't prove it but had very, very strong suspicion of who was responsible). But though the police report was inclusive that it might be arson we were dropped from the policy. And on top of that the inspector who came out to inventory everything in the garage was suspicious because I had recently collected a bunch of items and stored them in the garage (my mom was interior designer at the time and had given me some lamps and pictures). The inspector didn't like that I had multiples of items (I was going to sell them). She thought that was suspicious on our claim. I regret ever going to the police because we were unable to get any renter's insurance coverage ever again. Very upsetting. Now we own our home and have homeowner's insurance which is a completely different duck and very expensive compared to inexpensive renter's policies.

Anyway, I'm telling you all this so that you DEFINITELY get renter's insurance but DON'T USE ALLSTATE. This happened to me more than twenty years ago and it still makes me mad. Strangely enough I still use Allstate for our car insurance (based on the fabulousness of our agent only).

^^Yeah, that's what I was thinking as far as the 2500 goes. The agent is supposed to email me a copy of everything, and I want to check it to make sure I didn't write something down wrong. He did call me right when I rolled out of bed this morning, so that could be a possibility...but also, I'm paying like $9/mo, so maybe that's why it's so low. I dunno. I'll check again when I get my email to make sure I heard correctly...maybe I can get it increased :-/


^Aw, D4J, that's cruddy Good thing it didn't affect your ability to get homeowner's insurance as well :-/
I'm currently planning on going through AAA, which is who I have my car insurance through...

Oh ha, whoops. It's 25 THOUSAND, not hundred for personal property Much better.

That sounds much more like it, heh. And that's a good deal!

Dani

Get it! It's Cheap! It's too late to purchase after a loss has already occured! That is why it's called insurance!