If you are a tenant, you may think that tenant insurance is optional. Here’s why you can’t live without it.
If you’re in your 20s or 30s, your finances may be a bit tight. You may be repaying a student loan. You may have borrowed money to buy a car and need to pay monthly payments for your car insurance and your loan. If you have left the family nest, you have rent to pay and may have had to empty your piggy bank of furnishing yourself at a reasonable price.
So if you’re a renter, finding the funds for renter’s insurance – which you consider to be optional protection that you never want to need – is probably not your priority.
But here are 3 reasons why you cannot do without tenant insurance.
- Fire! Fire! Who pays?
Suppose a fire broke out in the apartment next door and, although the flames spared your unit, the smoke and water damaged all of your belongings: furniture, laptop, TV, clothing, jewellery, shoes, and your brand new snowboard. Your landlord has insurance for the building itself, but their policy does not cover tenants’ effects. You are responsible for protecting your belongings with tenant insurance.
And what happens if you have to rent a hotel room while repairs are taking place in your home? Tenant’s insurance helps cover the cost of temporary accommodation if you can no longer occupy your residence due to damage covered by your policy or if you are not allowed to return to your home due to an ongoing police investigation.
- When it’s not about you
Here is another scenario. You travel a lot for business, and your pet’s nanny takes care of feeding and walking Violette, your Boston terrier when you are away. One evening, the nanny comes to answer the door, trips over some shoes you’ve left piled up in the hallway and breaks her leg. She must be off work for six weeks and do physiotherapy after removing her cast. She, therefore, decides to sue you to recover the salary she lost, as well as the physio fees. Luckily for you, the liability component of your tenant’s insurance covers the costs. - You are the victim of theft!
Let’s take a look at that last “if” together. You return from a weekend out of town to find your back patio door has been smashed in, and thieves have taken away your laptop, high-end bike, games console and monitor. Giant. Your tenant’s insurance will help cover the replacement of anything stolen and partially cover the patio door’s replacement.
In addition to fire, liability, and theft, some tenant insurance policies cover your belongings if they are damaged during a move, and others may include (or offer optional) property theft coverage. Identity. If someone has stolen your physical or digital identity and is using it, for example, to run up debt or acquire a passport, identity theft coverage provides reimbursement for eligible identity restoration costs, including postage and long-distance calls. Your insurance may also help cover some of the lost income associated with having to take time off work to complete an affidavit, meet with police, lawyers or credit agencies, or go to court.
If you want more comprehensive coverage for your personal property and are willing to shell out more, comprehensive insurance protects against accidental loss and breakage, such as if you lose your digital camera during a weekend away or if you trip over the pile of shoes in your driveway or if you drop your laptop and it smashes when it hits the floor.
Renter’s insurance policies vary, so not everything mentioned here is necessarily included in all policies. Ask your insurer or consult your contract to determine what is covered and what is not.
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Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada is neither the insurer nor the administrator of home and auto insurance offered by Belair Insurance Company Inc., The Nordic Insurance Company of Canada and Belair Insurance Company of Canada. Trafalgar Insurance of Canada does not act as an agent concerning them.
