Comments on: Renter’s insurance: got it? get it.

By: wlg0925

wlg0925 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:24:48 +0000

For someone on a fixed income,renter’s insurance is a luxury. If my disability/retirement check is $635.00 per month and my rent is $495.00 there is $140 left over to buy food, utilities and medication. We are elderly, widows and widowers and/or disabled. The landlord demands that we buy insurance from a company they selected, otherwise they demand that we buy $100,000 instead of $50,000 worth of insurance. Some of us have lived here for over 18 years and now we have to move.
What would you do buy renter’s insurance or buy heart medication?
I once stopped and gave a elderly(80s)woman a ride. She was bent over with age, pale, out of breath, and carrying a huge bag of bottles to the store so that she could get the deposit to use for groceries. People are always thinking about themselves. Not everybody has money.

By: bjk

bjk — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:48:37 +0000

We are also Military and use USAA. I would like to add that when our stuff is being moved, USAA is also covering our stuff. That is peace of mind that is so worth it for us.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:42:23 +0000

Yes, we have renters insurance. My husband and I started renting our current apt about a year ago, and almost immediately got renters insurance?

Why? We wanted our possessions to be protected in case of theft,water damage,or other situations that may arise

How Much do we pay? $11 a month.

$11 a month is so worth it as a protection plan in case something happens.

I highly recommend it!

By: Micaela

Micaela — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:19:04 +0000

I work for a major insurance carrier and I talk to people everyday about how important this coverage is. I see people constantly that loose everything and had no idea that for less 10.00 a month all their belongs could be replace, not to mention most of those policies have something called lose of use which means your insurance carrier will pay to put you up somewhere else while your residence is being repaired and/or you are finding a new place to live.

By: ColaJae

ColaJae — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:48:21 +0000

Just an FYI – there are many insurance companies out there that will not insure you when you’re buying a home (after renting a home) if you didn’t have renter’s insurance for at least 6 months. Some even require that you’ve had it for longer. I worked with a homebuyer that didn’t have it AND had some credit issues and they couldn’t get insured….couldn’t buy a home for 6 months!

By: Deb

Deb — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:36:40 +0000

Another consideration for having renters insurance is the liability coverage that is included with the policy.

Most renters are aware that the landlord’s insurance policy doesn’t cover their possessions.

If a claim is made on the landlord’s policy and it can be proven that the renter caused the loss, the landlord’s insurance company has the right to pursue recovery of the amount they paid out from the renter.

Not all insurance companies will pursue damages, but some will. If the renter has a renters policy, the liability coverage from the policy would reimburse the landlord’s insurance carrier.

By: emmcoyne

emmcoyne — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:37:59 +0000

My renter’s insurance is half that–we pay about $62 a year.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:30:49 +0000

Hmmmm…. I guess I’ll be the lone voice of dissent here and say that we (my husband and I) chose not have renters insurance when we lived in an apartment for four years (2005-2009). And we feel it was the right decision.

When we looked around our apartment and thought about what we’d be insuring, it didn’t really make sense to us. We thought about the worst case scenarios (of fire damage or theft) and discussed what we’d do if those scenarios happened.

If we needed to replace absolutely everything, it wouldn’t have been too expensive, since nearly all of our belongings came to us second-hand. (clothing, kitchen pots/plates, books, furniture, childrens’ toys, etc.) It would have been a major hassle, but it would be a major hassle whether or not we had insurance.

The items which we couldn’t replace easily second-hand were irreplaceable (photo albums, heirloom engagement ring, etc.) and if those items were destroyed or stolen, no amount of insurance money could bring those items back.

Now that we own a home, we do have homeowner’s insurance (on the building itself) as a condition of our mortgage. We feel this is appropriate since we’re insuring the structure itself.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:56:24 +0000

The management company that ran our first apartment required us to carry $25k in renters’ insurance, but when they upped the minimum to $50k (along with increasing our rent by $400 in one year without doing any repairs), we moved. Our next landlord required us to carry $15k, which is much closer to the actual value of our stuff.

By: DW

DW — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:17:28 +0000

I once rented in an apartment complex that required tenants to have renters insurance. Mainl so their losses would be covered if I damaged the property.