We're ready to sign a two-year lease with our landlord for the home we've been in this year and she is requiring renters' insurance now. I have no idea how much this costs and can't get a quote without being bombarded with emails. I'd like to have some idea of the cost before signing the lease, even though I know it will vary with area. Does anyone have a policy or know how much it costs? TIA

By Colette on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 04:26 pm:

We own my in-laws home and my fil has renter's insurance (even though he doesn't pay rent) to cover his stuff, I think the bill is about $400-$500 per year.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 05:30 pm:

Ours was less..probably $200/year when we had it. It was very cheap, and that was for way more coverage than we needed at the time. (We were just starting out then and didn't have a lot of "stuff")

By Kaye on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 06:50 pm:

We have always had renters insurance when we didn't own a home. It is the cheapest insurance you can buy, I would guess between 250 and 400 a year. It is well worth it, I believe it even covers contents while they are in your car.

We have ours through the same company, who do you have car insurance with, can you give them a call?

If not go with a well known company, personally i love state farm

By Cocoabutter on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 07:32 pm:

Ditto Kaye. Pick up the phone and call the insurance company that you have your car insurance from and ask them to give you a quote. Renter's insurance is usually paid for annually, and when we rented (about 14 years ago) it was about $100/year. Now, it's probably more like $300-400/year.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 09:00 pm:

Ditto the others...used the same as our car insurance.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 09:12 pm:

Lisa is right - go to your auto insurance agent. You can often get a discount if you buy both policies from the same carrier.

One thing you definitly want in your renter's policy, and it will cost a bit more, is "replacement value" coverage. Otherwise, if anything is damaged or lost, you will get only the depreciated value. A friend had replacement value coverage for her homeowner's policy, and when her TV, tape player and stero were stolen, the insurance company just sent her new ones (I think they contracted with suppliers). On the other hand, for years I didn't know about replacement value and when we were burglarized, I learned I could only get the depreciated value of the stolen items - that is, for a 1 year old stero that I had paid $X for (and which would cost me about 110% of X to replace) I got something like 40% of X because stereos depreciate quickly. It's kind of like a new car, which depreciates about 15-20% the day after you drive it off the lot. That was a hard lesson, so I paid for replacement value coverage after that, and think it is worth the extra cost. When my mom and I started living together, she insisted we get our insurance from AllState, and while I wasn't thrilled with AllState, that's what we did. About a year after Mom died AllState stopped selling "replacement value" homeowners coverage, so I immediately switched to a company that does.

The other thing you need is coverage to pay for alternative housing if you are unable to live in the place you are renting for a period of time but your lease is not canceled. (My son's apartment building had a fire, and he had to live somewhere else for about 10 days until the smoke/water damage was cleared up; there was a second fire a few months later and it was a month before the management placed him in an apartment in another building, but this time they canceled his lease and refunded his rent from the date of the fire.)

You also need to know what the limits are on special, high-cost items, such as jewelry and electronics. Most standard policies have a limit of a few thousand dollars for jewelry or electronics unless you buy a rider for more coverage.

One thing you need to know is why your landlord wants renter's insurance, and if the landlord wants any particular kinds of clauses in it, especially any clauses that cover the landlord. I would imagine one reason she wants it is for you to have liability coverage so that it someone is injured by something you did on the property, she isn't sued. Another reason would be so that you have your own coverage and don't sue her if you suffer any property loss because something happens to the house.

By Crystal915 on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 09:58 pm:

Mine is with my auto insurance (USAA military insurance) and is about $30 a month, but it really depends on what you're insuring, and the area. It's generally not too expensive, and can be a life saver!! Mine covers all of my property, and the actual house to a certain dollar amount in case it's destroyed by fire or something and the landlord sues me for the cost.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - 01:39 am:

Renter's insurance is a good idea. We've always had it, when we were renting.

After I almost lost the diamond, in my ring, I realized that Gary hadn't put an extra rider, on our homeowner's insurance, for the ring. Well, fortunately, the same day I lost the diamond, I found it, in my house. When we had the ring fixed, we also had it appraised and then purchased the rider, so it would be insured, too. We were lucky that we never needed the rider, but I feel better having it. I also feel better having a 6-prong setting, instead of a 4-prong setting.