Times To Purchase Renter's Insurance

Renter's insurance provides important personal property and liability protections for individuals who lease residences. If you're entertaining a lease, here are a few specific times when you should purchase a renter's insurance policy.

You Permanently Live in a Rented Residence

If your permanent residence is a rented space, whether that's a rented apartment, condominium, or freestanding home, you should have renter's insurance. 

Your landlord is responsible for insuring the structure of the building itself against damage and destruction, but your landlord's insurance policy won't provide you with any protection. To protect yourself and your family (if you're living with family members), you'll need your own renter's insurance.

You Move in with a Roommate

If you move into a permanent residence with a roommate, you still need renter's insurance because you lease your residence. There are two ways you can acquire a renter's policy, though. You and your roommate can each purchase individual renter's insurance policies or you can go in together on a policy that covers both of you.

Many people who room together are tempted to share a renter's policy so that they can split the premiums associated with the policy and save a little money. If you decide to do this, however, any claims that your roommate makes could increase your insurance rates in the future. Therefore, you may be better off paying the full premium yourself and getting your own policy.

You Switch to Off-Campus Housing

College students who live in dorm rooms typically don't need renter's insurance because they still receive coverage from their parents' homeowner's insurance policy. Family members who live together, including both children and parents, are usually covered by a single homeowner's insurance policy. 

Since dorm rooms are understood to be temporary housing, students who live in dorms are generally considered to maintain a permanent residence at their parents' house and get coverage from the corresponding homeowner's policy.

If you sign a lease to live in off-campus housing, however, you'll probably need to purchase your own renter's insurance policy. When you live in an off-campus apartment or house, you're no longer in temporary housing but have signed an agreement to rent the residence. This may be considered your permanent residence, and you can't rely on your parents' insurance anymore.

You Go South for Winter

If you maintain a residence in the Northern United States but lease a condo in the South for the duration of winter, you should have renter's insurance for the duration of your lease. A renter's policy will ensure anything that's kept in the condo will be protected even if your homeowner's policy doesn't provide protection away from your main home.

For more information about renter's insurance, contact a company like Woodmansee Insurance Inc.

Share