Tenant’s insurance is a specialized type of homeowner’s insurance for those living or renting in shared residential accommodation to protect against fire and theft as well as flood damage. Read the following article to learn about the terms and limits on tenant contents insurance for tenants.
A home insurance policy, whether for one tenant or a group of them, is just that – coverage for your belongings. In the case of a home or apartment, this coverage will normally include both the items inside the home as well as those owned by the tenant (such as furniture, clothes and personal effects). There are some exclusions to this general coverage, however, and you should be aware of these as they may affect how much money is paid out for the damage that you have suffered from your landlord’s negligence, vandalism or theft. You may also have to pay for your personal liability insurance to cover injuries or damages caused by the activities of tenants while you are not at home.
The exclusions can vary depending on the type of tenant that you are insuring. Usually, though, landlords prefer to limit the type of tenant who gets coverage. They want to protect themselves from claims from tenants who do not need to be insured, such as renters who live in rooms where a deposit is kept. These types of tenants are also more prone to vandalism, and landlords prefer to avoid the expense of paying out for these losses if they can avoid them by only insuring tenants who live in a secure apartment or home with locked doors and windows.
Landlords also have some leeway when it comes to choosing who is and isn’t covered under their policies. For example, if you have pets, they may be covered by your landlord’s insurance policy. However, if you rent an apartment or a furnished apartment in a shared house, you will have to pay additional for pet insurance.
As for the cost of your home and rental insurance, landlords usually do not charge extra on a per incident basis; they charge an annual premium based on the number of incidents per year. This means that in years with relatively few occurrences of vandalism, the cost will be higher than in years when there are large amounts of cases. Even so, landlords are still able to reduce the cost of their insurance premiums by reducing the number of incidents.
Your choice of coverage will depend on how much you are willing to pay out for your protection and what you are comfortable with your landlord’s being allowed to do to safeguard your belongings. There are some exclusions to the general coverage, and these will need to be understood and respected by you before you sign up for homeowner insurance.
