Cheap tenant insurance

Because it can rescue you financially in the event something goes wrong at your apartment.

There are two main types of renters insurance:

Liability – If you cause damage to a third party. This is hugely important, because it has implications beyond just your apartment unit. If you accidentally start a fire or cause water damage to any part of the building, your landlord could hold you liable. Tenant insurance would cover you for this.

Personal property – In other words, your stuff. This insurance covers your personal belongings from perils like fire, water, theft, and more.

As little as 30 cents a day.

Really?! Really. If you take the bare minimum coverage, which includes liability insurance only, you’re looking at roughly $110/year.

Now if you take a more typical policy — liability and personal property insurance — with a $500 deductible, you’re looking at a premium between $250 – $350 annually. That’s still less than a dollar a day, so cheap tenant insurance can provide solid coverage too.

While renters insurance is not mandatory, most landlords will require it.

Who can benefit from renters insurance? Everyone that rents! (And we mean everyone. Even if you live with roommates, each tenant should have their own insurance policy.)

Cheap tenant insurance is attainable. At an average cost of $18/month, we recommend making it part of your monthly living budget.

There are four sections present on every renters insurance policy.

Personal property — Coverage for your stuff.

Liability — Coverage if you cause third party damage (to the landlord’s building).

Voluntary medical payment – A friend visits, slips and falls, breaks a tooth. It’s going to cost him $5,000 to fix and he doesn’t have dental insurance, so instead of him suing you, you voluntarily pay for his procedure out of your insurance policy.

Additional living expenses – If your home becomes unlivable after a claim, this coverage will pay for your cost of living — for example, a hotel — during the time you’re out of your house.

Renters insurance doesn’t cover your pet’s medical expenses — for that you’ll need pet insurance.

However, tenant insurance can cover incidents involving your pet. Let’s say your dog attacks a neighbour and they decide to sue you. Your renters insurance can cover that. It’s for this very reason that many insurance companies refuse to insure tenants that own “aggressive” dog breeds.

Yes! The most common example is a laptop stolen from a car parked outside the tenant’s home. Still, depending on your deductible, an item like that may not be worth claiming.

It’s a great idea! Why? Because of the potential financial ruin you could put yourself in if you damage something in the building.

Even if your apartment is just a rental and you don’t own anything expensive, it’s still a good idea to get insured. That’s because your personal property isn’t the only responsibility you have when you live in a building. There’s also a little something called liability, and if you accidentally cause water damage, or worse, start a fire that burns the entire building to the ground, you’d better believe your landlord will sue you for it.

For just about 30 cents a day, you could get yourself covered for that third party damage, avoiding a bill of upwards of tens of thousands of dollars. Considering how cheap tenant insurance can be, we’d say it’s well worth it.

It’s in the name!

Renters insurance is for people that rent their living space, paying monthly to a landlord.

Homeowners insurance is for, you guessed it, those that own their homes and pay a mortgage.

That’s a great idea!

If you can find the time to take stock of what you own, take photos of each item, and estimate the value, you’ll make the claims process a whole lot smoother. Of course, if you wait until it’s time to submit a claim, it’ll be too late. Do it while you’re getting your tenant insurance quote.

Claims adjusters love when clients have a list of their personal belongings — it makes things move quicker and the payouts come faster. That’s a win-win.

Basic coverages include:

• Fire and lightning
• Hail and wind
• Smoke damage
• Vandalism
• Freezing of plumbing, heating, air conditioning

Note that groundwater, sewer back, and flood insurance aren’t included. That’s because they don’t come stock. If you want the absolute best tenant insurance coverage, you can add them as an endorsement for an extra charge.

It certainly will — but only to a certain extent. The average coverage limit for a jewelry insurance policy is $5,000. If you own a more expensive watch or wedding ring that you want to insure, you can do that, but you need to buy a separate policy, called a rider. A rider is a policy within a policy that covers only the single item in question.

No, it’s not required by Canadian law. Landlords, however, can require it of their tenants as part of the lease, so more often than not you’ll have to get renters insurance in order to rent an apartment anyways.