Renter's Insurance is a valuable addition to your insurance plan for a multitude of reasons.
IT'S AFFORDABLE - The average renter's insurance policy is around $180/year or $15/month. The cost will vary depending on how much coverage you choose for your personal belongings, the limit you select for liability, how high or low your deductible is, and other various options. The standard starting point for coverage is currently $30,000, but this can be exhausted quickly.
IT COVERS YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY - Your personal property is everything inside of your home. Imaging if you took your apartment and turned it upside down. Everything that falls out is your personal property. Items such as your clothing, your furniture, electronics, jewelry, appliances, and more are covered under your personal property. Take a look around your home and start adding up the cost to replace those items. Remember when we said $30,000 gets exhausted quickly.
YOUR LANDLORD MAY REQUIRE IT - It is becoming more commonplace for Landlord's to require that their tenants carry renter's insurance. Your Landlords policy will cover the actual structure but it won't cover your belongings. This trend has likely arose to shift some of the responsibility onto tenants when it comes to claims situations. Landlords that require coverage will typically want to see proof of coverage annually.
IT COVERS LIABILITY CLAIMS - If someone is hurt on your property or if you accidentally hurt someone else (at your home or away from home) they can sue you for medical bills. Your liability coverage will cover the costs of judgments and legal expenses up to the limit of the policy. Policies start out at $100,000 and can go up to $1,000,000 in liability coverage. Each level has a very minimal increase in cost.
THERE IS COVERAGE FOR YOUR BELONGINGS AWAY FROM HOME - If you are going on a trip or have personal items in your vehicle, your renter's insurance is still protecting your belongings from theft or other covered loss. Think of those expensive glasses you wear, your jewelry, a bicycle, and so on. Those items are still protected up to the limits of the policy.
YOUR RENTER'S POLICY COVERS ADDITIONAL LIVING EXPENSES - What does this mean? Say you live in an apartment complex and your neighbor has a fire. The fire doesn't reach your home, but the smoke does. The fire department says you cannot go back into your home. Where are you going to go? How are you going to pay for it? Your renter's policy is designed to help you cover the cost of additional living expenses such as housing, food, and more while you are unable to stay in your home. It must be a covered loss and the coverage amount is the limit on the policy.
Key note: Always, and I mean ALWAYS, select replacement cost coverage for your contents and not ACV. Replacement cost will provide you with the same or similar item that is priced at a similar or equal value. If you only carry ACV, instead of getting a new TV, you are going to get the depreciated value of your current TV. With the advancements of technology and inflation, you likely will not get anything near comparable after the ACV evaluation.