Renter's Insurance

What is "renter's insurance"?
Renter's insurance covers people who do not own their own homes. Just because you don't own your home, it doesn't mean you don't have a lot at stake. For instance, if you own a home, you worry about whether the home burns down or is damaged in a storm. If you're renting, that's the owner's responsibility. But if there is a fire, you have a lot of personal property to protect. You also may have specialized property: a stamp collection, baseball cards, fine art, etc. That's still your responsibility. You can insure that even if you're renting the property and you may have some liability issues. If someone falls in your home and they trip over your dog, they're going to sue you, not necessarily the landlord, so you have some exposure there. Most importantly, if for some reason you are forced to leave your home because of damage, from a storm or fire, even if you're renting, renter's insurance will cover loss of use which means the insurance company will pay any additional living expenses either to rent another place or put you up in a hotel on a short term basis while your property is being repaired. That's very important; if you have a fire that burns down your rental home, you can replace all your personal possessions and you can be put up somewhere else while the home is being repaired. That's why renter's insurance is important. Renter's insurance is also relatively inexpensive.

How do I determine how much renter's insurance I need?
To determine how much renter's insurance you need, essentially you should sit down with your insurance agent and go over what your personal property is. Is it very standard stuff like your couch, TV and bed, or are there special items there that are a little bit harder to replace and that might need an independent appraisal to put a value on it? For example, a very expensive painting or a fur coat, an irreplaceable piece of jewelry or baseball card collection? If you go through this with your insurance agent, they can set up a schedule for you to make sure all of these items are properly appraised and included in a renter's insurance policy.

What kind of documentation should I, as a renter, keep?
If you have any sort of documentation that can prove the value of your personal property, you should keep it for future reference, if you are a renter. If you've just bought a new flat screen TV, it would be nice to keep the receipt. If you have any sort of specialized property, like a wine collection, for example, it would be good to have an independent appraisal filed with your insurance company, so that there's no disagreements going in if you lose that property about what it's going to cost to reimburse you. Any sort of documentation on items you own is always valuable, because it will show the insurer some proof of what needs to be paid out in order to replace the property you've lost.