If you rent a house or apartment instead of owning it outright, you might not think you need insurance or that it is even available to you. In reality, it's a good idea to have insurance whether you own or rent. Even if you rent instead of buying, you can still get insurance. It's called renters insurance, and it can be a safety net you can't afford to miss.
At the very least, renters insurance will cover your furniture, clothes, and electronics if they are stolen, burned, or damaged by a natural disaster. Renters insurance can also protect you if someone gets hurt at your home.
There are many options for renters insurance, which gives you a lot of freedom depending on what you need and how much you want to spend.
If your personal property is damaged by fire, hail, smoke, vandalism, lightning, plumbing, etc., your personal property coverage will pay for the repairs. If your personal belongings are stolen, this type of policy will also pay for them. To get this kind of policy, you need to decide how much your property is worth. The policy will then be written for that amount. Make sure you know how much your personal property is worth. If you don't, you may not have enough insurance if something bad happens.
You can also get personal liability insurance, which will protect you if someone gets hurt at your house and sues you. This kind of policy will cover both the damage and the legal costs that come with it. A policy like this usually has a minimum of $100,000 and covers injuries or damage that happen at your home or are caused by you, your kids, or your pets.
Another kind of policy you might want to think about is called "extra living expenses." If you can't live in your rented home because of a risk that is covered by the policy, this type of coverage will pay up to 20% of the contents coverage amount to help you pay for other living expenses. This would cover the cost of a hotel, food, laundry, etc., until your home is ready to be lived in again.
With improvements coverage, you can use up to 10% of your contents coverage to replace or fix things you changed or redecorated before a covered hazard happened.
A fire legal liability policy will protect you if you are found legally responsible for fire damage to your home.
Renters insurance usually has deductibles, just like other types of insurance. You can change the deductibles to lower your premium, which may make the policy easier to pay for.
