Category: Renters Insurance

Renters Insurance FAQs Answered!

Posted on by butlervetinsurance

What is Renters Insurance?

Renters insurance is a form of homeowners insurance that covers your personal property and belongings and provides liability coverage when you’re living in a structure that you don’t own. Renters insurance provides all the same protection as homeowners policy does except there is no building coverage, which significantly reduces the cost of the policy. The good news is you are still covered for scenarios such as fire, theft and more 🙂

What Does Renters Insurance Cover?

There are three things commonly included in your renters insurance policy: personal property items, temporary relocation expenses and liability in case you are sued.

Personal Property

Most policies will reimburse you for the loss or destruction of your personal belongings due to 16 specific events:

  • Fire or lightning.
  • Windstorm or hail.
  • Explosion.
  • Riot or civil commotion.
  • Damage caused by aircraft.
  • Damage caused by vehicles.
  • Smoke.
  • Vandalism or malicious mischief.
  • Theft.
  • Volcanic eruption.
  • A falling object.
  • The weight of ice, snow or sleet.
  • Accidental discharge of water or steam from within certain household systems or appliances.
  • Sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning or bulging of certain household systems.
  • Freezing of certain household systems or appliances.
  • Certain sudden, accidental damage from artificially generated electric currents.

 

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Did You Know?

Most insurance companies offer reimbursement at replacement cost for your renters policy. Replacement cost policies pay for the actual cost of replacing your possessions with new ones.

Replacement cost coverage will help replace your older items with brand new replacements, without deduction for depreciation. For example, you have a TV that is 5-years-old. When its stolen, you will be paid for the full value of a new TV, not the value of a 5-year-old TV.

Renters policies typically have a cap on what they will pay out for valuable or unique items. If you want to cover grandma’s handed down diamond ring or your collection of music equipment, you may need to purchase a policy add-on to ensure they are covered to their full value.

Additional Living Expenses or Loss of Use

When your house becomes unusable due to problems protected by your policy, insurance coverage for tenants normally provides for additional living costs until your house is repaired. This includes payments for hotels, meals from restaurants and other charges above what you would usually spend.

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Liability Insurance

If you are having guests, you are opening your rental property to risk. In the case of an injury in your rental leading to a lawsuit, the liability coverage in your renters insurance would pay out for someone else’s bodily injury or property damage and typically legal representation. It also covers damage you and your family accidentally do to others.

This can also come into play in the event of a dog bite, but ask your agent and read your policy to be sure it is not excluded.

What Does Renters Insurance NOT Cover?

  • Natural Disasters. Your insurance usually won’t cover items damaged by flooding, sinkholes or earthquakes. If you live somewhere that these are common occurrences, you will want to purchase additional coverage.
  • Undocumented Items. You’ll likely need to provide receipts or similar during a claim. If you can’t prove you owned the item with some sort of documentation, then you may not be fully reimbursed.
  • Roommates’ Belongings. A renters policy covers your personal belongings as the insured person. An item that doesn’t belong to you won’t be covered just because it is in the rental property.
  • Rodents, Pests & Bugs. Renters insurance won’t cover damage done by these creatures, or the cost of an exterminator. Be sure to take preventative measures to protect your investments.
  • Property Damage. Renters insurance covers your belongings, not the structure. Any damage to the structure will fall under your landlord’s insurance. If you have concerns you’ll want to ask them about their coverage on the structure.

 

Questions? Want to learn more? Here’s 4 easy ways to reach us:

Phone: 877-994-6787
Email: [email protected]
Text: 951-482-8144
Web: agency.thebutlerweb.com

PS Here’s a few words from one mother of teens that trusts Stromsoe Insurance Agency:

“My experience with Stromsoe Ins. Agency has been very helpful when in need. The whole staff have been corporate and very professional in what they do. I would and have recommended them.”
Janette Corral – Lake Elsinore, CA – Client Since 1999

PPS Every policy is backed by our iron clad, 100% complete satisfaction guarantee. Ask for your copy today!

The Reality Of Renters Insurance

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Do You Need This Kind Of Coverage?

When you rent, you do not have as many worries about your property as a homeowner. If your shower clogs, or your oven breaks, or your neighbors are being too noisy, all you have to do is pick up the phone and have someone else handle the issue for you. Just because you do not have to worry about maintaining the property on which you live does not mean you should not worry about the personal property you store in it, though.

As a renter, you can rest easy knowing your rental property would be rebuilt after a fire because it is covered by your landlord’s insurance coverage. If that fire crept into your unit and touched your belongings, though, your landlord’s coverage will not extend to replace or repair your possessions.

Consequently, it is important to carry renters insurance. This kind of coverage is very affordable (usually between $15 and $30 a month, depending on how much property you have to cover) and will offer protection for your personal property. That means that a thief breaking in and swiping all of your valuables will not leave you facing a financial deficit. Have you protected your possessions with renters insurance?

There is an additional benefit of this type of coverage. Renters insurance also offers liability coverage, which means that a guest getting injured in your rental will not end up being a huge legal expense for you if they decide to sue you. Protect yourself from being held responsible after an injury with renters insurance.

Do you have an insurance expert showing you how much coverage you need to protect your rental, your personal property, and your liability? To get that kind of guidance, contact Stromsoe Insurance Agency today. We are here to meet all of your California renter’s insurance needs.

Understanding What’s Covered Under Your Renters Insurance Policy

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A renters insurance policy is designed to protect the personal property of a tenant. While most property owners will have a homeowners policy or commercial insurance for the actual building, that policy does not cover personal items belonging to tenants.

What’s covered under renters insurance

While the exact coverage can be different depending on the carrier you choose, most policies provide several standard features. As a renter, your belongings would be covered up to your limit if the items were destroyed by a covered event. Fire, storm damage and theft are the common events.

Coverage normally includes personal liability protection. This protects you from a lawsuit if a guest is injured in your residence. Medical payments for injuries to guests are included up to your chosen limit. If you, or a family member, damage someone else’s property, it is also covered under your liability protection.

Most policies will provide you with coverage for additional living expenses (ALE) if your current residence is destroyed and unlivable. ALE pays the difference between your regular expenses and those you incur for temporary shelter.

Purchasing renters insurance in Murrieta and the Southern California area is well worth the low cost, likely less than you pay for two movie tickets a month. Contact Stromsoe Insurance Agency and let a professional explain all of the benefits of renters insurance to you.

Tenant, Beware! The Perils of Leasing

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If you are a tenant, you might believe that you have avoided many loss exposures, such as fire damage to the structure, associated with owning the building. However, have you read your lease lately? Really read it?

Many leases contain extensive insurance requirements that the tenant (you) must agree to meet. Although these usually include liability from your actions and responsibility for covering your property for loss, it’s easy to overlook the extent to which you might have agreed to cover exposures usually assumed to be the responsibility of the building owner.

For example, retail shopping areas often have an abundance of external glass windows. Although these are clearly the property of the building owner, many leases transfer any responsibility for damage to the windows to the tenant. The idea is that because you directly control the potential loss exposures for the glass (such as vandalism, accidental breakage, and maintenance inspections), you should provide the insurance. Similar reasoning might lead you to being held responsible under the lease for other losses not directly attributable to your own negligence.

Now is the time to pull out that copy of your lease. Review it with your legal counsel to see if there might be language or agreements that need addressing. Then let us review the document for its insurance implications (be forewarned — they won’t all be contained in a paragraph titled “insurance”). We’ll review with you, what your lease requires, how your current insurance program matches up with these requirements, and then offer guidelines for making any necessary changes to your protection.

Call us today to schedule an appointment. 877-994-6787

Just Because You’re A Renter Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Insurance Needs

Posted on by butlervetinsurance

Many renters mistakenly believe that they don’t need Renter’s insurance or view it as an expensive luxury. However, insurance needs aren’t negated just because one happens to be renting their home.

For those not familiar with Renter’s insurance, it’s an insurance coverage that protects the renter from property losses from damages like water and fire. It also provides protection for liability risks, such as lawsuits brought by the landlord of the property, pet attacks, falls and slips, and guest accidents. This type of coverage is available in most areas and has an average $20 monthly premium rate for around $500,000 dollars worth of liability coverage and $20,000 dollars worth of property coverage.

Trusted Choice, a network of financial and insurance service firms, recently found in a survey that almost 25 million American home renters didn’t have any insurance coverage to protect themselves from losses and that most renters have limited, if any, knowledge of Renter’s insurance.

Eight percent of the respondents without Renter’s insurance had never heard about Renter’s insurance before. Meanwhile, 17% said they weren’t aware that they needed Renter’s insurance and 26% percent felt that Renter’s insurance was too costly.

According to the study, some renters also mistakenly believed that their insurance needs were covered under the insurance policy held by their landlord. In reality, landlords don’t typically insure anything other than the building and infrastructural elements like HVAC systems and elevators. Other losses incurred will be directly on the renter’s shoulders. Even negligent actions caused by one tenant, such as a fire, that affects other innocent tenants in the building aren’t typically covered by the landlord’s insurance.

Other key findings of the study included:

  • Fifty percent of the surveyed renters owned pets. Thirty-two percent of the non-pet owners had Renter’s insurance. Although renters that own pets have a higher liability exposure than renters without pets, a mere 26% of the pet owners had Renter’s insurance.
  • Eighty-nine percent of the surveyed renters owned at least one expensive electronic device, such as a computer, camera, digital recorder, or home theater system. This group was more likely to have a Renter’s insurance policy than those that didn’t own such devices.
  • Fifty-three percent of the surveyed renters owned at least one form of exercise or sports equipment, such as a skis, bicycles, or a home gym system. This group was more likely to own Renter’s insurance than those that didn’t own such equipment.
  • Only thirty-one percent of the renters operating a home business from their apartment, condo, or other type of rental unit had Renter’s insurance.

Call 877-994-6787 for your FREE price-comparison Renters Insurance Quote Today, that’s 877-99-INSURE!!!

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