Maybe you just moved in to your first apartment. Or, your family relocated for a job and you’re in corporate housing. When you live in a residence you do not own, renter’s insurance provides protection for you and your belongings.


Each adult resident that is not married needs a separate renter’s policy; the policy covers only the person who signed for it. You can also have multiple people on a policy. What you need depends on your situation. Your renter’s insurance agency is happy to answer any questions and get a policy in force for you. Most of the time you will save money and have more complete coverage by bundling your renter’s and auto coverage with your renter’s insurance agency.

There are three important parts of a renter’s policy.

First, the coverage for the insured - you. Think about everything you own, every pair of blue jeans, every towel, every DVD, the cost to replace your belongings would be in the thousands of dollars.

If your apartment is damaged by fire, you suffer a break-in, or your neighbor leaves the water running and floods your apartment it’s important that your belongings are covered. The average coverage needed is $5,000 per room with a minimum of $30,000 for a single person.

When thinking about the amount of coverage needed remember you need to cover your belongings, but not the appliances that were included in with the apartment or other furnishings your landlord provided.

Second, the coverage for others - your guests, your neighbors, and even someone who breaks into your apartment. A renter’s policy covers your liability and has coverage for medical payments if a guest is injured. The liability portion would pay if you are legally liable; you invite a guest over for coffee and stretch a cord across the walkway causing them to trip and injure themselves, your liability would take care of their injuries.

The medical payments covers a moral obligation, your guest comes over for coffee and breaks their toe on your coffee table. Your medical payments would cover their injuries even though you did nothing wrong and were not liable.

The third important coverage is loss of use. Should your apartment be damaged and you’re unable to use all or a portion of the apartment loss of use would pay.

In a total loss the loss of use would pay for a hotel, meals out, and emergency expenses. In a partial loss like a kitchen fire loss of use could cover the difference in your grocery bill and eating out every night. Call your Independent Insurance Agent today to start your renter’s insurance, because once something happens, it’s too late!