Vivian, a Centreville, VA renters insurance policyholder, writes to us with a question we hear on nearly a daily basis.
Can my landlord make me get renters insurance?
The answer is unequivocally yes. We’ve heard the “free country” argument, we’ve heard the “I’ve lived here 20 years and never needed it before” argument, and we’ve heard the “but I don’t want to!” argument. Not one of them is valid, and here’s why…
Yes, it’s a free country.
We’re proud of that fact. But that doesn’t have any bearing on can my landlord make me get renters insurance. Because it’s a free country, you have the freedom to enter into any lease or contract that you desire to with all the rights and responsibilities inherent therein. If your lease requires you to have a professional cleaning monthly, you agreed to those terms. (Yes, we’ve seen it. Rarely, but it does exist in the wild.) If your lease requires you to have renters insurance, you freely entered into that lease contract with full knowledge of the contents of what you were signing. Just like an insurance policy, you are responsible to know the contents of your lease and what it requires and what it does not allow.
It’s wonderful that you’ve lived in the same apartment for 20 years and never had a loss.
Now you’re asking, “Can my landlord make me get renters insurance?” The answer is yes. Each successive lease renewal, of which you’ve likely signed many , supersedes the previous lease and may add or amend terms, conditions, or responsibilities. Yes, your landlord can make you get renters insurance by stipulating that in the lease.
Whether you want to or not is immaterial to wondering, “Can my landlord make me get renters insurance?”
You may not want to pay your rent, you may not want to keep your party quiet and low key, but you have to do those things per your lease. If your lease requires renters insurance, you must have it. Can my landlord make me get renters insurance? Absolutely.
So the answer to the question can my landlord make me get renters insurance is absolutely, positively, unequivocally yes under nearly any imaginable set of circumstances. Unless your housing is subsidized, anyone in America can be required to have renters insurance. Now that you know that, take a look at how does renters insurance protect me for more information on why you should have it anyway! Also, have you ever asked, What does renters insurance cover? Call Effective Coverage at (800)892-4308 for more information, or click above for an instant, online renters insurance quote!