Does My Landlord Provide Rental Insurance?

Purchasing an Apartment Insurance Policy

If you are living as a tenant in a rented house or apartment, your landlord probably provides certain amenities to you such as paying for your trash disposal, sewer and water service, maybe even your basic cable, phone or electric bills as well. One thing that most landlords do not provide, however, is renters insurance, which provides coverage for your personal effects in case of a disaster.

There are several types of insurance that a property owner can have, including homeowner’s insurance, property insurance or an umbrella policy which provides massive coverage above and beyond other insurance policies for a homeowner or auto insurance policy. Unless the owner is living on the property or providing furnishings for the home, they are not likely to have a personal property insurance policy which would cover the items in the house were it to suffer a catastrophic loss like a fire.

It is a common mistake that many people make, assuming that while renting their home from someone else, their items will be covered by an insurance policy provided by the owner should they wake up one morning and find that their prize DVD collection, including the lost episodes of the Twilight Zone, had been stolen while they slept. These same people usually find themselves before their landlord or in the renter’s office, with their jaw hanging open after they’ve been told that whatever they lost is simply gone, unless they had their own renters insurance policy.

There may be the occasional circumstance where renters negotiate with their landlord for the landlord to provide insurance for personal effects, but this is rare and often negotiated specifically in advance - it should never be assumed when signing a lease for a place to live. Likewise, there are some landlords or owners who require that their tenants keep a renters insurance policy active.