Benefits of Getting Renters Insurance

A common mistake that apartment and condo dwellers who rent make is not purchasing renters insurance. Most think that their property owner or landlord’s insurance will cover their property if it is lost or damaged. This is not the case and renters insurance is a valuable policy to have in order to protect you from many common occurrences. Some benefits of purchasing renters insurance in California or renters insurance in Nevada include:

Theft
Do you have an expensive computer, television or other valuables in your home? While you are busy at work a thief can come help themselves to your valuables and belongings. If you don’t have renters insurance you would have to replace these items yourself out of pocket. Renter’s insurance covers your valuable property in case of theft.

Personal Injury
Renters insurance covers more than theft. Let’s say you have some friends over for a game or movie night and as you’re wrapping things up and wishing your guests a good night one of them slips on something you left on the stairs and breaks their leg. Your landlord is not responsible for this and if you don’t have renters insurance, which means you could be liable for your friend’s medical bills. Renters insurance covers your liability for injuries giving you peace of mind next time you are hosting that dinner party.

Accidents Happen
Life is unpredictable and accidents happen. Imagine this scenario: you have gone to work for the day and as you are hard at work a water pipe bursts in the apartment above you. When you arrive home your floor is covered in inches of water rushing in from the ceiling above. Events such as these including weather damage and fire are covered under renters insurance. If the damage is so severe it makes your dwelling uninhabitable renters insurance will cover other living expenses such as the cost of a hotel if you have to go away as repairs are being made. 

Renters Insurance Is Affordable
Renters insurance is very much affordable and will cover you in the instances mentioned above and more. People often think that they don’t own enough valuables to purchase renters insurance because they underestimate the cost of what it would take to replace their household items in the event of loss or damage.

As an exercise to determine what level of insurance coverage is right for you, it is recommended that you do a home inventory to assess the value of your belongings. There are many ways to do this and some of the most common ways to do this include:

- Photographing or recording each room in your living space
- Creating a checklist of items in your living space and its original value along with serial numbers and receipts if you have them. Store this information in a folder in a secure place such as a lockbox.

Once you complete this assessment the total value of your belongings might be eye opening and may change your mind about buying renters insurance. Get an inventory done now because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.