Better safe than sorry – get renter’s insurance right away

By Sadiya Anjum

Just because you live in a rented property, it does not mean you don’t need insurance for your property. Your property here refers to your personal belongings. Even if the rental property is insured, your personal belongings from the stereo to your clothes is not. So if anything gets stolen, the landlord’s insurance isn’t going to help you out. Its only sensible to get yourself renter’s insurance and don’t say – it won’t happen to me – because you never know. Apart from your possessions this insurance will protect you against liability in case of any injury or accident.

Renter’s insurance is safety guaranteed for anyone who rents an apartment, condo or any other kind of dwelling. Renter’s insurance generally covers loss occurring from theft, fire, smoke, lightning, explosion, riot, vandalism, hail, and water damage from plumbing.

There are different policies for renter’s insurance and only purchasing these will cover the specific loss or damage. For instance, personal property coverage will insure the possessions in your house from television to clothing. This coverage is valid even if the loss or damage to that item occurs away from home.

You could try the medical payment for others coverage which includes medical expenses for those guests who are accidentally wounded in your house. This coverage is specific only for injuries to visitors not members of the house. Most policies also include damage to others caused by you or your family – (for instance, if you accidentally damage the neighbor’s property) but this is only up to policy limits.

An important factor you must consider while purchasing renter’s insurance is whether you would like the Actual Cash Value (ACV) policy or the Replacement cost policy for your belongings. The ACV policy takes into account the age of the asset damaged. For instance, if a decade old computer gets stolen, then the insurance will be paid for the computer after estimating its cost after ten years of its purchase. The Replacement cost policy will simply replace the computer with its original value. Of course everyone would prefer a Replacement cost policy then but for obvious reasons the ACV policy is cheaper.

After finding out the various policies that are available, start sorting out the items you want to insure. Make a list of these or better still videotape them for definite proof. Make copies of the list/videotape and store them in different places (bank locker or friend’s house) for safety.

So when you are out finding the appropriate policy, make sure you get the right one tailored according to your needs from a reputed company. Renter’s insurance is relatively inexpensive so go ahead and get it. But make sure that you know exactly what your policy covers because you don’t want to realize after a mishap that you don’t have enough coverage.

If you think medical insurance is a must because it’s your health but renter’s insurance?! Well think again because if something dreadful happens you don’t want to be crying over the proverbial spilt milk.

Article Source: ChoiceOfHomes.com - Find Homes for Rent and Sale Online

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