Tenant's Contents and Liability Insurance

The owner of the property you're renting almost certainly has insurance on the building itself. They may also have coverage for certain items inside your rental unit, such as the carpets, light fittings and appliances. So you may wonder why you need coverage too.
Here are four excellent reasons:

1. Your landlord's insurance most likely does not cover any upgrades you may have made to your rental unit and paid for yourself. For example, you may have installed upgraded carpets or added built-in shelving units in the closets.
2. Your landlord's insurance will not cover your personal belongings. Your jewelry, artwork, furniture, entertainment equipment and other valuable belongings will not be protected.
3. You may not be protected against personal liability should you accidentally damage a neighbour's property or should someone be injured while visiting your home.
4. In the event that your unit is not able to be occupied, a tenants policy will provide
coverage to pay for temporary accommodations.

Tenants insurance policies are usually sold as a “package” type policy insuring your contents, personal liability and additional living expenses. It is important that you purchase adequate coverage – in our experience a minimum level of contents coverage for a single person would be approximately $30,000. Couples should be looking at minimums of $50,000 and more. The best way to determine this limit is by use of a home inventory booklet where you detail all of your belongings, remembering to value them at their replacement cost. As with homeowners insurance, care should be taken to ensure that any special items such as jewelry are insured separately if necessary.