Renters Insurance – Is It Worth It?

You’d be surprised how many renters don’t buy renters insurance. I think it is a must whether it is to rent an apartment or a house. Yes, it’s another annoying bill, but it can save you tons of cash in an emergency. Do you want an example? Here it goes. Let’s say the upstairs toilet overflows at 1 a.m. after you’ve drowsily walked into the bathroom, used it, and not realizing it for some reason, until you go downstairs the next morning for your morning cup of coffee and give yourself away. notice that it has been leaking. your TV / sofa / whatever for the last 6 hours or so. Now your TV / Sofa / Whatever is totally ruined, you have a beautiful water stain on the ceiling and possibly a leaking toilet that you won’t fully know what happened until the plumber takes a look.

You call the management company and they send someone to take a look at you, quickly determine the problem, and fix it. The landlord also takes care of the roof. But your furniture or … stuff? All up to you. If the material is damaged, without renters insurance, you will have to replace everything at your cost. If you spent an arm and a leg on your things, you will not be happy. But with renters insurance you’ll get the replacement cost minus your deductible, and that will definitely ease some of the pain.

Also note that insurance companies will give you a discount if you have multiple policies, so if you purchase a renters insurance policy from the same company as your car, you will get a discount on at least one of them. If you pay your auto insurance monthly, you may be able to do the same with your renters policy and pay an affordable monthly bill for both policies from the same company.

Think of all the other things that could go wrong, fires, storms, floods, and even theft. If you don’t have renters insurance, you should consider it.