current and past renters

[golfgal]

psstt, Barkley, it's "a lot", not allot. I just had to say this because I saw it on a few of your other posts and thought it was a typo. Sorry to be the spelling police but hey, just trying to help.

 

[jen0610]

My cousin is an insurance agent. Please, if you have renter or home owners insurance, please make sure you document the items you have in your home. He was over at our house not that long ago and this was mentioned in our conversation.

For our electronics we have in our home - 2 computers, 2 lap tops, 6 different game systems, 2 36" TV's, 3 smaller tv's, 3 different sterio systems, 6 DVD/VCR systems. Plus I have a huge precious moments collection. He said that if we would have a fire and everything was gone, the sheer number of repetitive items we would be claiming, would get our claim red flagged. Told us to take picutres with a date stamp of our higher end item and duplicate items. Anything that we have now and still have receipts, make a listings of the makes, model, and serial numbers of the electroincs and put the receipts with the list. As we upgrade with new items, add to the list. Any jewelry get it appraised and store this with your other documents.

He said as sad is it is, some people will greatly pad their claims. Yes they did have a loss, but people would claim that they have 2-3 40" plasma TV's, a computer with every bell and whistle, very expensive digital camera and video recorder. The more higher end items you claim, the more likely you will need to prove that you actually owned these items and that you lost them.

 

[Chicago526]

My high school boyfriend's family were renters. There was a fire in one of the buildings (not theirs) and 2 unites were gutted (no injuries, at least!). One unit had just canceled their insurance because they were going to move out at the end of the month, the other hadn't bought it yet because they had just moved in. Both families lost everything they owned!

Ever since then, I've badgered anyone I know who's a renter to get the insurance. I've even talked a few people into it!

 

[ead79]

We absolutely have renters insurance, and I am so glad that we do. We have coverage for our stuff, plus liability. We also added a rider on for my wedding and engagement rings. The jewelry rider made it much more expensive than renters was on its own, but it's very worth it to me. I really do need to take some pictures of our stuff with my digital camera in case we ever had a loss.

 

[golfgal]

A side note that just occurred to me, if you have homeowners insurance make sure you have REPLACEMENT value coverage too. It isn't much more $30/year or so but they pay you replacement value on your goods, not depreciated value. If you have a 5 year old TV, you would get $40 or something like that without replacement value coverage. With that coverage, you get a new TV.

A family in our old town had their home completly destroyed in a fire, including everything in the house. They did not have replacement cost insurance and their pay out for their home and goods was not even close enough to replace their home let alone their goods. They took the policy out when they bought their home, never really increased their coverage limits over the years. Never changed their coverage amounts after they paid off their mortgage so they were covered for a $50,000 home but to rebuild that exact same home was close to $250,000. They were retired, no mortgage and all of the sudden they have a $250,000 mortgage.

 

[poohandwendy]

Yes, we did have renters insurance when we rented.

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

Wow, I can tell none of you live in Miami. I have $36,000 in content coverage and pay $482.04 a year.........it's an expense I have to have due to the hurricanes......but, it's certainly no cheap by any means. I won't even go into what homeowner's insurance is on a home here.

For those of you wondering content insurance is similar to renter's but it's what you get when you own in a condo or townhouse situation where the building is actually covered by your association. Even though you own a part of it, this way the whole building is covered but you must get your own content insurance. Prices seem to have gone way up on all types of insurance in FL, way back when (1995) when we lived in a townhome in Margate, Fl our content policy was less than $200/year for replacement value.

 

[twojo21]

we do, i work in insurance & know how important insurance is.

renters insurance provides protection not only for your personal property so your furniture, computer, clothes, etc. but also personal liability & guest medical when negligent in your home ie if your dog bites someone. some policices also provide additional living expense to pay for your temporary accomodations should there be a claim & you have to live elsewhere like the fire referenced by the op.

renters insurance typicallys runs about $200 for the year too. defintely a worthwhile investment for what you have.

 

[Cool-Beans]

When we started out, we didn't have insurance...nothing to insure!

After a while, found our drunken neighbor passed out on the floor outside his apartment while his smoke detector was going off. By then we had a hard earned TV and VCR. We broke down and got the insurance...I think it was about $60.00...but that was a pinch then.

A friend of mine who rents called while I'm typing! She pays State Farm $150 a year, but says she could have gotten it cheaper if she got her car insurance with them, too.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We've been renters for 10+ years, and for many years I've told myself we need to have renter's insurance, yet I never paid to get it from our auto insurer who offered it. When we went to WDW in June I worried a little about what could happen while we're away for the week, know we live in a row house that has been converted to a 2-unit and that disaster would not necessarily be something from within our home.

Just last month I changed our auto insurance provider and bought the renter's policy as well. It's a little over $100 for the year and covers $25K worth of personal property.

 

[disneynutt1225]

We never had it on our apartment because it wasn't mandated by NJ at that time. Had we renewed our lease it would have been mandatory for us to have the insurance. I guess we were fortunate we didn't have anything happen to us while we had the apartment.

 

[froglady]

Thank you so much for this thread! I forgot to call DD's auto insurance company and change her address. I was also planning on adding renter's insurance at the same time.

DD just graduated from college, and has her first job, apt, etc so I'm going to continue paying for her health, auto, and now, renter's insurance until she is more established. I know that one bad incident early on can put you in a financial hole for years if you don't have coverage!