Renters Insurance

The central difference between renters insurance vs. homeowners insurance is the property each policy is designed to protect. Homeowners insurance generally covers the owner-occupied house, other covered structures, personal belongings, liability, and qualifying loss-of-use expenses. Renters insurance normally protects the tenant’s belongings, personal liability, and certain additional living expenses—but not the building itself. That distinction…

Laptops, televisions, smartphones, gaming consoles, cameras, and other electronics can represent a substantial part of your personal property. If they are stolen or damaged, replacing everything at once could cost thousands of dollars. So, does renters insurance cover electronics? Generally, renters insurance covers electronics you own when they are stolen or damaged by a covered…

Your dog tears up the carpet near the door, or your cat repeatedly urinates in one corner of the apartment. Will renters insurance pay for cleaning or replacement? Usually, the answer is no. Standard renters insurance typically does not cover damage your pet causes to the carpet, floors, walls, doors, or other parts of your…

Renters insurance may cover certain losses caused by a power outage, but the outage itself is not usually enough to trigger coverage. Whether the policy pays for spoiled food, damaged electronics, or temporary accommodation generally depends on why the electricity failed. Coverage is more likely when the outage results from a peril covered by the…

Renters insurance generally covers personal belongings damaged or destroyed by fire, smoke, and certain related losses. It may also pay additional living expenses when a covered apartment fire makes your rental temporarily uninhabitable. Coverage can apply whether the fire begins in your apartment, a neighboring unit, another part of the building, or outside the property…

Standard renters insurance generally does not cover personal belongings damaged directly by an earthquake. Earth movement is commonly listed as an exclusion, along with flooding, landslides, and other ground movement. To protect furniture, electronics, clothing, and other possessions from earthquake damage, renters usually need a separate earthquake policy or an endorsement added to their renters…

Renters insurance may cover hurricane damage to your personal belongings when the loss results from a covered event such as wind, wind-driven rain entering through storm damage, or certain related incidents. However, standard renters insurance generally does not cover external flooding or storm surge. Renters usually need separate contents-only flood insurance to protect belongings from…

Standard renters insurance generally does not cover bed bugs, extermination costs, or damage caused by an infestation. Insurance companies commonly treat bed bugs and other pest infestations as preventable maintenance problems rather than sudden and accidental events. As a result, a standard policy usually will not pay to treat the apartment, replace an infested mattress,…

Renters insurance generally covers jewelry under the personal-property section of the policy when it is stolen or damaged by a covered event. However, the amount available for jewelry theft is commonly much lower than your total personal-property limit. A policy may provide $25,000 or more of total personal-property coverage while limiting jewelry theft claims to…