Everything You Need To Know About Renters Insurance

By Elana Goodwin on July 21, 2014

This article is brought to you by the Uloop Housing search service. Ready to make the move off campus? Search through the Uloop housing listings to find your next apartment, condo, town home, or house for rent.

You know you didn’t leave the door to your apartment open when you left for class that morning (and you’re pretty sure your roommate wouldn’t have either), but you come home and it’s ajar.

You enter your home to find it’s been ransacked: your TV – gone, your printer – missing, that nice watch you got on your birthday – nowhere to be found, and that’s just at a cursory glance.

Your more expensive possessions have been stolen and while that sucks, if you have renters insurance, it doesn’t have to suck quite as much.

Photo Credit: mgarcade.com

A lot of students–when moving into an apartment or house for the first time after living in the dorms–don’t know about renters insurance or if they do, they think they don’t need it.

Here’s a breakdown of what renters insurance is, when it would kick in, why you would need it, and answers to other questions you may have about renters insurance.

First things first — what is renters insurance?

Renters insurance can basically be broken down into three categories — personal belongings, liability and additional living expenses. The first category protects the value of your personal property in cases where they are lost or damaged by a fire, stolen, vandalized and more.

The liability protection applies if someone is hurt on your property and can protect you from a lawsuit or help pay for any medical expenses needed due to the injury inflicted in your home.

The last category, additional living expenses, kicks in if you need to have temporary lodging and meals since you can’t live in your rental because of some kind of damage – like from a bad storm or fire – that is covered by the policy.

So renters insurance pretty much acts as your safety net if anything bad happens in your apartment or house or to your stuff.

So now that I know what renters insurance is, I’m not sure I want to get it; I mean, I don’t have a lot of valuables – do I really need renters insurance?

Yes! Contrary to what you may think, you probably actually have a fair amount of valuables in your apartment, even if you don’t remember shelling out a lot of money for your stuff. Textbooks, jewelry, laptops, tablets, printers, loose cash or credit cards, TVs, gaming devices, even clothes — all of this can add up to a nice payday for a thief if they hit your home (so take steps to keep your valuables safe too).

Take stock of the stuff you have, make a list, and figure out how much everything is worth so that if something does happen, you’re covered and can make a legitimate claim.

As stated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners committee chair Mike Chaney, renters insurance covers individual belongings for losses or damages due to fire, smoke, hail, lightning, explosions, theft, vandalism, falling trees and other objects, household appliances, plumbing ruptures and more.

But wait – I lived in the dorms and didn’t have renters insurance because I was covered by my parents’ insurance policy — so wouldn’t I still be covered by my parents’ homeowners policy?

No — when you were living in the dorms, you were probably covered by your parents’ insurance, but once you move off-campus, it’s a different story.

If you were living in a dorm on-campus, any claim you made would probably be limited to 10 percent of your parents’ coverage limit. But once you’ve got your own place, you need your own renters insurance policy because you’re no longer qualified to be covered under whatever policy your parents have.

This makes getting renters insurance all the more important when you move into your own place off-campus.

Alright, so renters insurance is starting to look pretty important — but now I’m wondering how much is it going to cost me, on average?

Surprisingly, renters insurance doesn’t have to break the bank at all. The average estimate for a renters insurance policy is about $184 per year — not a bad price to pay for peace of mind, and if something happens to your stuff, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’d have to pay more than that to replace or repair it.

Plus, if you live with at least one roommate, it’s possible to buy a policy together and then split the cost. Even if you don’t have a roommate or two, buying renters insurance won’t hurt your wallet too much and you’ll be thankful you bought it if you end up needing it.

So if you are living in an apartment or house, buying renters insurance is super important, especially because you’re not covered by your parents’ policies anymore and crime is everywhere.

According to statistics published by the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, in 2010, 92,695 crimes were reported to college and university campus police in the U.S., and the number per year has only grown. Of the crimes reported, 97 percent were property crimes.

Renters insurance is a relatively cheap way to protect your belongings and yourself from anything that may happen to your possessions or in your apartment, and in the long run, the price you pay is worth it.

So before you move back to campus or into a new house or apartment in the fall, look into purchasing renters insurance — it may really help you out during the year.

Make your next move easy by finding a place to live near campus using the Uloop Housing search service full of students needing Roommates and Sublets or people ready to rent you a great Apartment or House.

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