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Tenants
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.
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