How Can I Get Renters Insurance With Roommates? Img ©
Effective Coverage, the insurance experts for renters, has the answers you need.
How Can I Get Renters Insurance With Roommates?
When you need renters insurance with roommates, it’s crucial to work with an insurance expert. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this, and the amount of coverage available to you – or even whether you have coverage at all – can be significantly impacted by how you go about it!
The best, most effective way to get renters insurance with roommates is to each have your own policy. There are several reasons for this, of course, but the two most important reasons to have separate policies are that you know exactly how much coverage is available to you, and you know that a check for a claim will be made you to you and only you.
Roommates change often. You don’t want to have to chase down an old roommate to get them to sign a check for a claim that they weren’t even a part of, right? What if you parted on bad terms? If you have roommates as additional named insureds on your policy, this is a distinct possibility. It’s even more problematic to have additional named insureds when, in many cases, it’s impossible to remove a named insured from a policy. If a roommate moves out, you’d likely have to cancel the policy and start over again!
When each roommate has their own individual policy, they’re choosing their own coverage limits. Not only does that allow them to cover their personal property at an appropriate level, it also allows for additional liability coverage if more than one person is responsible for a loss. If you and another roommate leave something in the oven and go out for a bit, and it starts a fire, you’d both be liable for that loss. With separate policies, both could respond giving total coverage of the aggregate of the two policies.
If cost is a concern, it shouldn’t be. You live in North Carolina, home of the cheap renters insurance policy. Renters insurance policies in Fayetteville are some of the least expensive in the nation. At $125 a year or less in many cases, everyone in your apartment can afford to have their own policy. We neglected to mention this above, but by having individual policies, it’s one less bill to be splitting between several people. That’s a nice bonus, as well.
Who Is Covered When I Have Renters Insurance With Roommates?
That depends on how the policy is written. If you do it the correct way, with a policy for each person, that individual is covered under the policy. That’s one of the reasons why that’s the best way to get renters insurance with roommates. You know you’re covered because you’re the named insured. If you’re endorsed on as a roommate, your coverage may vary based on the way the endorsement is written, and that’s potentially bad.
Of course, the usual rule of thumb applies. If someone is not listed on a policy in some fashion or other, they are not covered, full stop. The only time that there is coverage for a person not named on the policy may be when they are married or otherwise related to the named insured. Read the definitions section of your policy carefully to determine if and how this applies to your policy.
What Are Some Concerns I Should Have About Getting Renters Insurance With Roommates?
If you have more than one roommate on a policy, if your underwriter allows that, you should be concerned that you’re splitting the limits. The limits of a policy are aggregate, or total. In other words, if you have $15,000 of personal property coverage, you only have $15,000 total between you. If the property loss exceeds that, you’ll each get an amount proportional to your loss rather than the whole loss. Worse, the same applies to liability limits. Since liability coverage can add up quickly, you’ll want to make sure you’re not splitting those limits.
If you have multiple roommates listed as named insureds on your Fayetteville Renters Insurance, and you’re splitting the check with those people, you’ll have to worry about how to split it – one check will be issued, and it’s on you to get it to the people it needs to get to. That’s also potentially problematic, to say the least. You don’t want to be in a position where arguing about who’s entitled to what portion of the claim puts a strain on the household.
You also don’t want to be splitting a fifteen dollar a month bill between a couple of people. It’s just not worth the hassle to figure out who owes what portion, or whose turn it is to pay the bill. You also don’t want to worry about whether or not it gets paid by the person who’s supposed to be paying it!
Can I Afford To Get A Policy For Each Person If I Need Roommate Renters Insurance?
Yes! Interestingly enough, a policy with a roommate endorsed onto it might cost $225 in, say, Baltimore. But you can get two policies for about the same amount of money in Fayetteville. It’s very affordable to get a policy for each person if you need renters insurance with roommates.
It’s easy, too. You can go online and get a policy for each roommate in about sixty seconds. If you have questions, just call one of our insurance experts for renters who can help to guide you through the process. You don’t have to be intimidated by your search for renters insurance, even if you have several roommates. It’s quick and easy when you work with Effective Coverage.
Just call (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need Fayetteville renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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