For those of you who rent or plan on renting, then please continue reading and learn about how renters insurance can protect you. As a tenant, obtaining renters insurance is very inexpensive and one of the most important investments one could make in order to protect the contents in their rented space. Understanding the need for this insurance is the first step in obtaining it. It is easy for a renter to believe that renters insurance isn’t necessary because a renter is not the owner of the property. They may even think that their contents have very little value because the sofa was purchased at a garage sale or from a friend. Many people think this way and unfortunately when the loss occurs, all these items are now gone because the building went on fire or was vandalized.
We all have a tendency to accumulate more items in our lives and probably more than we will ever need. However, it is important to remember that the value of these contents increases with these new possessions. As an exercise, take an inventory of your personal belongings and place an estimated value on them. One will see that it could add up to be in the thousands. Now think of this scenario: In the event of a fire, the tenant’s first reaction would be to go to the landlord only to hear that their responsibility is to protect the building and the property only and not the contents of the tenants rented space. Tenants should never assume they have any automatic coverage on their personal assets just because the landlord has property insurance. So how would one replace all these things tomorrow?
We all want to live in a perfect world knowing that when we lock the door behind us and go off to begin our day we don’t have to worry about what we leave behind in our apartment. We all have personal belongings, whether they are expensive electronics, jewelry or even the simplest things like clothing, furniture, musical equipment, appliances, computers, iPods, CD’s and much more. All these materialistic possessions are our assets and protecting them with renters insurance will allow renters to move forward with their lives and minimize losses in the event of a catastrophe.
Renters insurance will protect personal property against fire, vandalism, theft; water and wind damage due to weather; and even liability protection in the event of a law suit. For example: If someone is visiting the renters’ apartment and slips and falls in the bathroom, the renter would be protected against the liability protection of the policy since it covers the injury to the other person who was hurt.
If renters make this very wise investment choice and protect more than the clothes on their back when they walk out that door, then they are protecting themselves and all possessions in their rented space that they have spent a lifetime obtaining.