Tenant and home insurance...

ijared

Hello,
I am trying to renew my home insurance which I have had for 5 years. I am just renting and its not my house. Do I really need home insurance as a tenant and if so any help chosing as a tenant?
jared

vusys1

if you want your possessions covered you would need insurance. Any general insurer would insure a tenant subject to the usual u/w criteria.

If its not your house the owner should be arranging the building insurance, not sure if you are insuring both from your OP.

gregd_3

You have no insurable interest in the buildings therefore you only need contents cover.

Your contents policy will also probably cover you for your legal liability as a tenant therefore so if your tenancy agreement states you are responsible for certain events such as breakages etc to landlord items then you will also be covered but you need to check the small print of both your tenancy agreement and policy you take out.

G_M

Do you need it? Depends on
a) your attitude to risk and
b) the value of your belongings

If you prefer to save money each year and hope the house doesn't burn down destroying your sterio and designer clothes, then you don't need it.

If you have no sterio or designer clothes, just a toothbrush and a pair of jeans, then you don't need it.

dogbot

G_M wrote: »

Do you need it? Depends on
a) your attitude to risk and
b) the value of your belongings

If you prefer to save money each year and hope the house doesn't burn down destroying your sterio and designer clothes, then you don't need it.

If you have no sterio or designer clothes, just a toothbrush and a pair of jeans, then you don't need it.

I don't think that is very good advise as it might misslead people a little (though the point about attitude to risk is fair). Home Contents policies don't just insure your contents. Additional covers include the following:

Personal liability cover which can be very helpful - e.g. you are cycling along and accidentlaly run into a car, a person or what have you.

As others have indicated tenants liability is also included.

Alternative accomodation benifit. This means that, if your home is uninhabitable following an insured loss (e.g. a fire, a flood, an escape of water...) they will provide funds for your to stay elsewhere while repairs are ongoing.

Depending on the quality of the cover there can also be benifits like a death or mugging benifit, legal expenses, counceling benifit etc



Ok. If you litteraly just had a toothbrush and a pair of jeans, which is unlikley, you probably don't want to buy it. But, ask yourself, if your home burnt down and you lost everything you owned - could you afford to replace them and find a new place to live? Particullary if you accidentatly did something that led to the fire and so had to defend claims from your landlord, other tenants in the building/neighbours, find somewhere else to live etc etc etc...

Go round your home and make a list of everything you own - room by room - including pictures, mirrors, soft furnishings, towels, pots and plans and plates etc in the kitchen. Put down a value of how much it would cost to replace each item with an equivolent new item and tot it up. Bet you will be surprised how much it is.

aldredd

Great post Dogbot.
I've always tried to have a pretty good contents insurance policy, but your post reminded me JUST how important it is

geri1965_2

As a liability adjuster I have dealt with so many claims from people who don't have their own insurance, it's unbelievable.

Just last week we dealt with a claim in which a washimg machine caught fire and there was £40,000 worth of damage to the building and tenant's contents...neither of which was insured!

What people also don't realise is that in the event of there being someone else to claim against (in this case the manufacturers of the washing machine, if liability is proven) then cover is not new for old, so £20,000 worth of contents (based on new prices) might get a payment of £5,000 or so (based on second hand prices).

G_M

dogbot wrote: »

Personal liability cover which can be very helpful - e.g. you are cycling along and accidentlaly run into a car, a person or what have you.

As others have indicated tenants liability is also included.

Alternative accomodation benifit. This means that, if your home is uninhabitable following an insured loss (e.g. a fire, a flood, an escape of water...) they will provide funds for your to stay elsewhere while repairs are ongoing.

.

It's a very bad example, but I take your point.

Personal Liability would NOT cover the 'cycling along' situation - it is restricted to liability in the home. EG employer liability (your maid trips on the stairs, or the postman is bitten by your dog) and tenant liability (yes, if you damage the building and the LL makes a successful court claim against you)

Any good landlord however would have decent LL insurance that would cover tenant damage (accidental &/or malicious depending how extensive the policy), and would also provide alternative accomodation for tenants if the property becomes uninhabitable.

To cover the 'cycling along' scenario, you would need a totally separate (or it could be an add-on) policy: (Family) Legal Protection. Nothing to do with home contents insurance.

ijared

If I understand right, I can renew my insurance if I want to stay with them but I may have to insure only the contents in the house and not the house itself as I am only a tenant. Am I right?

gregd_3

That's correct, you can not insure the buildings because you don't own the house.

FlameCloud

You do not need to own something to insure it. Insurable interest can be created through statute and contract, amongst other things.