Home/rental insurance

[checkersumthing]

Judging by past spammers, I predict this is going to be a popular spammer thread!

Anyhow, I was wondering, do you have home/rental insurance? If not, why?

I was taught that its important to have at least basic home insurance, just in case. Also that its better to have a smaller policy than none at all. Right now, I have a pretty basic policy, that would cover the essentials should something happen to my home. I should probably reevaluate my needs to see if the policy is still relevant, since I now own all my own appliances, and those would be rather costly to replace. I've always had rental insurance, because my parents wouldn't let me move out without it! When I moved in with my boyfriend, he didn't want insurance (he didn't have any on his apartment at the time), but I said it wasn't up for debate, and paid the premium myself. He says he doesn't believe in insurance, and would rather put away money in savings in case of an unfortunate event (and yet should something happen right now, he doesn't have all that much saved up). A year later when I renewed it I paid it from our joint account, and he got a bit annoyed ("I thought you were paying for it!") but I told him it wasn't up for debate, that we've lived together long enough and that his name was on the policy too, so we were paying for it jointly.

So then we had a bit of a false alert last night, but the possibility of our home burning down/crumbling passed through both our minds, and I think D is now convinced of needing insurance! His exact words: "The most important thing is that you, me and the cat are all safe, everything else is replaceable" and then me "Yup, that's why we have insurance!" and he agreed.

So anyhow, does anyone not have insurance? Why?
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[Figwit]

We really need to get insurance (we're renting), but the main thing holding us back is the fact we have multiple thousands of dollars worth of music equipment in the house and renters insurance will NOT cover that. So it would essentially be covering my yarn, books, kitchenware, and clothes. Which in terms of someone stealing, wouldn't be on the top of the list. In terms of our house burning down, we'd be screwed :)

We are in the process of getting musician's insurance (which requires pictures, estimates, serial numbers, photos, etc) but it's going to take a long time to catalog everything my husband has. It's been an ongoing project to get a digital (and hard copy) catalog of his gear, but the general state of flux of gear isn't helping that.

Off to go look for more info about renter's insurance!
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small is possible.

[scaredsi11y]

Good topic!

I didn't used to have renter's insurance. I couldn't really afford it, and honestly, the stuff I had wasn't all that great. Most of my household goods and furniture consisted of cast-offs and inexpensive thrift store purchases. Nothing I'd be terribly upset to lose.

After mr. scaredsi11y and I started living together, I (we) got insurance for the first time. I was looking around the house one day, thinking about how much it would cost to replace everything... and it started to add up. We switched insurance companies about a year ago, and found that we could increase our coverage with the new company and pay the same amount we had been paying the old company. (Phew, does that make sense?) It worked out well because we had recently bought some new furniture for the first time ever!

Because we have a multi-policy discount, we pay about $25/month for a $30,000 policy. We've done a fairly recent inventory of our stuff, and feel satisfied that it's an appropriate amount for now. Since we rent, we don't own the appliances. One thing we REALLY need to do, and have been putting off for ages... is make a good photo inventory of our whole house. Our agent recommended that we do this and store it on a disc in a safe place, off-site.

My suggestion for people considering getting insurance: if you're in doubt about any items you own being covered, or how specifically the insurance will work, ask! We found out that mr. scaredsi11y's musical equipment is covered because it's not used for significant financial gain. We made sure to check that our house being 120+ years old wasn't a problem. We clarified how/when the insurance money would come through, in case of emergency. We wanted to make sure our policy wasn't a "soooo....you guys go ahead and replace your stuff out of pocket and then submit those receipts to us" type because, uh, we don't have $30,000 in the bank.

In the past five years, I've known two people who had extensive fire damage, and three who had break-ins. Even if nothing ever happens (knock on wood), having insurance makes me feel safer.
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"It came to betoken the nation's biking and adulation of automobiles!"

[casiep]

[checkersumthing]

I'm glad to see we're not the only ones who ever had the insurance debate! I find this is a really interesting topic, so I'm going to come back and add some more comments when I'm not at work.

Carry on!
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i live at the foot of a mountain: some of my adventures

[PurpleDoor]

I do have renter's insurance, which I have had to use! I know I posted on here about it at the time...the night before I was supposed to start driving from NC to CA, my car was broken into. Nothing HUGE was stolen (i.e., my laptop), but a LOT of little stuff was: clothing, all my knitting needles (plus a couple of projects), books, CDs, photos, jewelry (my Chanel earrings, sob!), etc. It was all covered under my renter's insurance and I was able to get a check to replace most of the stuff very easily.

Insurance companies do their calculations with the intention of coming out ahead, so from a purely financial standpoint, the odds are good that MOST people will not recoup the money paid into their insurance. I think if you a) can take the financial hit of losing all your worldly possessions, and b) could easily crash at a friend's place or couchsurf for 1-2 weeks if your place suddenly went up in flames and you had to find another place to live, getting renter's insurance might be a bit of a toss-up...at that point you are basically paying out for peace of mind or convenience.

[puck]

i'm paying renter's insurance because, at least at state farm, it makes my car insurance cheaper.

... they have discounts for packaging coverage that, at the rates i'm at, makes it cheaper to have renter's insurance with my car insurance than it does to just have car insurance.

so it's like peace of mind plus cheaper car insurance, all in one convenient package!
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"i'm a little bit pop-culture
and a lot bit d.i.y."
(rawr!)

[scarymonster]

Nope, never really even thought about it. I don't know anyone who has it. I think most insurance like that is based around fear-centered unlikelihood, so I don't really go for that (same as extended warranties and shit on purchases.) Of course car and health insurance are different, because stuff happens all the time, but other than our laptops, and unreplaceable sentimental crap, we don't have anything we're too concerned about.

We spent $25 last year on a fire safe that we keep our major paperwork in, but other than that, nope!

[jettesette]

We had renters insurance when we rented and now we have homeowners insurance- which is required since we have a mortgage.

I was under the impression that huge reason to have renters insurance aside from it covering your personal belongings- is so that your landlord cant hold YOU financially responsible for any property damage from something like a house fire- Is that correct?
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[checkersumthing]

[Melmont]

[Gigi]

I have renter's insurance. It's from a reputable, widely known company, and costs me less than $20/month for up to $20,000 in replacement costs. I have a tiny place, and not a lot of stuff, and no super expensive stuff, so that means that if something happened and I lost everything, I could buy every single bit of it back.

When I was seven years old, my house burned down. We lost everything except the clothes on our backs, and if we hadn't had insurance, it would have absolutely ruined my family financially. I would never, ever, ever go without insurance.

[mohawk]

We have home insurance, of course, since we have a mortgage. We go through my agent from my small hometown and I really like it that way. I know him personally, he goes to my parent's church and we buy beef from his family each year (cattle farmers), so whenever I call I don't feel like I am lost in the shuffle.

[sweep]

I was required to have house insurance when I had a mortgage, so I did have it.

Now that I am renting, I tacked on the renters insurance to my car insurance policy. It is costing me $18 per month, but if there is a fire, or a flood, I will be covered. I don't have the income, or the savings to be able to replace all of the things in my apartment.
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be happy for this moment. this moment is your life.

[town hall]

I have contents insurance (which I guess is like renter's insurance - for the stuff in the building, not the building itself). I wouldn't be without it. I know plenty of people who've had burglaries, floods, ceilings collapsing, fires, etc. Yes, it's 'just stuff', and insurance can't replace lost sentimental items anyway, but -- as many above have said -- having to re-buy even just the bare basics (clothing, cooking and dining stuff, somewhere to sit and sleep), all at one time, doesn't bear thinking about.
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