Landlord Contents Insurance – Are You Required to Obtain Coverage?


Often you can compare contents policies online, apply online for coverage, and pay premiums online using a credit card or electronic bank draft.

You’ll find that over the years you rent, you’ll be very glad you have contents insurance for tenants. Hopefully you won’t have to make a claim (in which case you’ll probably be granted a ‘no claims discount’), but you may learn of other renters who lose their possessions and cannot replace them because they did not buy contents insurance. Every year there are people put in the position of having to replace their possessions from scratch because they did not invest in a contents insurance policy.

Housing Rentals

If you’re at home, take a look around you. If the computer you’re using to read this were stolen or destroyed, would you be able to replace it? What about your other personal possessions? If they were stolen, vandalized, or destroyed in a fire, could you afford to pay to replace them out of your own pocket? Chances are you have an MP3 player, television, stereo speakers, maybe a laptop computer or iPhone, not to mention your clothing, furniture, and appliances.

Now think about it this way: would you have approximately $10 per month that you could put away that would make sure that your belongings were replaced if there were a fire, tornado, or theft? Cheap contents insurance is something you can easily find online, and for the cost of a couple of cups of premium coffee a month, you could insure thousands of dollars worth of possessions. There are many insurance companies on the web, and they have to stay competitive in order to stay in business.

This is great news for you, because not only can you compare rates and apply online, you’re likely to get a very good deal too. You may be able to add contents insurance for tenants to an existing policy you have, such as your car insurance policy, a health insurance policy, or a life insurance policy, because some insurance companies offer discounts when you buy more than one type of coverage from them. But it’s a good idea to compare several rates, because sometimes you’ll get a better rate for a standalone policy from another company than you would if you added your contents insurance to another policy.

Your renter’s insurance may even protect you against lawsuits with liability protection if someone were to be injured in your home and it wasn’t due to a structural problem. If they were to sue you, and you had liability insurance under your contents insurance for tenants, you could be protected from litigation. That alone could be worth the cost of coverage. Think of it. For less than $1 a day, you can most likely get liability or comprehensive contents insurance for tenants from a reputable insurer and have all your valuables protected and protect yourself from liability. It’s hard to think of a reason not to get cheap contents insurance.

If you are a landlord, you should strongly consider encouraging your tenants to buy landlords contents insurance. If you think about it, their rent is a major source of your income, and you want your tenant to be able to pay their rent regularly, in full, and on time. If there were a fire or storm, your tenant’s savings could be wiped out along with their possessions, causing them great financial hardship. This will obviously affect your income. Contents insurance for renters is the safety net they need and you need so that in such an event, financial hardship won’t complicate the situation even more. There are some landlords who go so far as to charge a slightly lower rent for tenants who can show that they have adequate renter’s insurance.