Renters insurance is a must!
Just recently, I was called out to a home late on Saturday night. The family was just renting the home, and their daughter left the hose running in the backyard after she got water for the dogs. The family went out for a few hours; when they got back, there was the equivalent of an ice-skating rink out front, and the basement was completely flooded, with several inches of standing water. I called a few guys to help, and we headed out. Once we got to the home, we discovered that the people who called us out were tenants, and not the owners of the home. We helped to notify the owners so they could file an insurance claim to take care of the damages. The tenants assumed that since it was going through insurance, their furniture and personal possessions would also be taken care of. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The owner of the home did have homeowners insurance, but it only covered the structure of the home. If you own your own home, you will have coverage on your homeowners policy to cover your personal property. However, if you are just renting a home, you will need to get renters insurance to cover all of your ‘stuff’. This can be a very expensive lesson if the house you are renting burns down and takes all of your possessions with it. Or floods and ruins everything you own. I never carried renters insurance until I started doing restoration work; I highly recommend it to anyone out there renting, the cost is very affordable and the protection is well worth it.
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