When my husband and I were first together we rented an apartment for a few years while we saved for a home. I can remember the feeling of pride as we purchased our first few pieces of furniture and began decorating. We were living on a tight budget and weren’t exactly worldly when it came to realizing all of the responsibilities involved in renting. Sure, we knew we had to pay our rent on time but when my Dad asked us if we had renters insurance we were a pair of deer in headlights.
Why Get Renters Insurance
After a bit of research we were shocked to learn that we were responsible for anything that happened to people who were visiting us. For example if we had a guest who happened to slip and fall at our apartment they could actually sue us! WHAT?
As soon as we realized that we would be held responsible for this we decided to go ahead and get renters insurance. There were more benefits of course…these may seem obvious to you but for many of us renters insurance is something which we don’t think of.
Benefits of Renters Insurance
- As a tenant, you are liable for ANY harm caused to any part of the building and to others who live or visit there. This was HUGE for us; we had an incident when I had forgotten I was making something on the stove. Thankfully we caught the pan in time before a fire actually began but the reality of the situation certainly became clear to us.
- Your possessions have value. When we had that conversation with my Dad we laughed when he mentioned the value of our possessions, come on we had almost nothing right? Wrong. Once he began listing everything which was in our bedroom we began to see how much money it would take to replace it all. Just our wardrobes alone would be out of our budget. Renters insurance would help us recover the cost of any replacement items.
- Lawsuit protection. As I said above we were in no position to payout if anyone ever sued us for an accident at our apartment, knowing we’d have this kind of protection was important to us.
These are just some of the reasons why I’d recommend getting renters insurance to anyone who is renting a house or apartment. It’s not an expensive endeavour; Statistics Canada says tenant households that bought insurance spent an average of $309 on it last year — less than half the amount spent by those who owned their homes.
To learn more, head over to the IBC website where you’ll find everything you need to know.
Isn’t your peace of mind worth it?
Disclosure: Although this post has been generously been sponsored by IBC, the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they reflect The Insurance Bureau of Canada.
It is far too often you hear of people who lose everything in a fire and had no insurance. As much as I feel bad for them, their experience and losing everything at the same time I wonder … really no insurance … what were you thinking?!?!? A couple hundred dollars a year can protect you from SO MUCH … people really need to realize this especially if there is damage done to your rental YOU are responsible. Can you imagine losing everything then on top of it all having the debt of the cost to repair the rental unit … I can’t and that is why from my very first rental I have always held insurance.
Great article Julie, hopefully this will reach the people who need to realize this still and help them understand just how important insurance is :)