apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Getting renters insurance is the smartest thing a renter can do, and is way cheaper than most people expect. (Maybe a couple hundred bucks a year.) I lived in a very nice and newly renovated apartment in Chicago once, and TWICE in a year it was completely flooded (once when my upstairs neighbors connected their washing machine wrong, and once when my landlord froze a pipe in the empty unit directly above me.) My landlord was a jerk about the whole thing, and took forever to repair the damage. My renters insurance (State Farm) got me money to replace my goods in a fairly timely manner. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had relied on my landlord doing the right thing.

One thing that's important to note: Renter's insurance often only gives you the current fair market value of the item you lost, not the amount needed to replace that item with a new one. So if you fry your two year old computer, don't expect them to get you a new laptop unless you've specifically looked into that clause in your policy first. Also, very expensive things like wedding rings or I dunno, super fancy antique china or something, might need an additional floater policy for that item.

But seriously! This should be the second thing you buy for your new apartment. The first is a fire extinguisher. (Also something that came in handy unexpectedly once in a while, and don't trust that your landlord will have THOSE, either.)

It was an incident somewhat like this one that led us to buy renter's insurance... a car blew up in the underground parking of the building across our alley. Smoke, fire fighters, the ground SHOOK!

Better safe than.

Thank goodness no one was hurt and there wasn't significant property damage in this case. I have actually survived an apartment fire. A number of years ago I was helping a friend to move into a new apartment. A few minutes after we had unpacked the boxes and hooked up the TV, we heard a loud explosion in the hallway. We quickly closed the fire door (yes, they do work) and managed to escape out a tiny window to the fire escape. My friend lost everything anyway due to heat, smoke, and water damage. The entire building was eventually condemned. Unfortunately, my friend didn't have renter's insurance and was forced to spend thousands to replace all his furniture and clothing.

Renter's insurance is so cheap, I don't understand why people don't have it. I also want to mention that it's very much worth it to get replacement coverage. It's not so much that what I have is worth a lot of money, it's that *replacement* of my things to live comfortably would be.

When I was 4-years-old (raised by a single mom) we suffered a devastating loss by fire in Washington Heights, NY. We had nothing left and became homeless for many months. From then on, my mother and I struggled to recoup all that was lost.

Now that I am a Mom, I made it a point to obtain renter's insurance with this recent lease (we owned our own homes before, so loss was included in our homeowner's ins.). I will no longer take a chance with our belongings. The hardest part were losing baby pictures because to me they tell a story, but with online photo albums and personal blogs, I have a history of my family that isn't at home.

And this post has reminded me that I should itemize the major stuff and take pictures of everything in case of loss.

Depends. At some points in my life most of my furnishings have been gifts or yard sale or scavenged items or "good bargains". It wasn't worth it to me to pay hundreds of dollars for rental insurance. And luckily I didn't end up needing it. So, say for twenty years renting, say, $200 per year- that's 4 thousand dollars.

Now, being an owner, homeowner's insurance is pretty much mandatory of course, and I don't think I would try not having it anyways given the replacement value of a home!

JG, it doesn't really matter how those things were aquired, they still need to be replaced.

I haven't been in the rental market since the mid-90s, but my daughter recently looked at some apartments, and all of them required that occupants carry renter's insurance. Smart idea, methinks.

I actually lost a 250 yr old house three weeks after my BF and I finished renovating it, to a massive house fire in 2006. I cannot tell you how important an good insurance policy is. Three words: full replacement value.

To everyone who thinks insurance is a luxury, consider this:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hbPQqP84QZpu71ux6rTQqSVdyYJgD929RFB80

my complex requires it and, in addition to protecting my stuff, it also includes liability insurance. all for $130 a year...why not?!

While a lot of my furnishings were cheap/free/gifts etc., I figured if I couldn't afford to buy the item at full value in the first place, I couldn't afford to replace it either should something happen. While *I* was careful in my home, not all my neighbors were.

Renter's insurance was only $22 a month. What's that? Like 3 drinks from starbucks? Getting in to a movie? It's not like we're just replacing the furniture either. There's clothing, towels, dishes, art, photos, electronics... Yeah. If you think you can't afford the renters insurance then you really can't afford to replace all your stuff should something happen.