Holly, who has Colorado Springs, CO renters insurance, writes in with a question about her coverage.
Now that I’m in my first apartment and have bought a Colorado renters insurance policy, I wanted to know if renters insurance covers computers? I’m a graphic design major so I use it frequently for school, but I don’t do paid work with it.
Great question and great observation! That is something a business might ask to throw a bit of a wrench in the works.
Are Computers Covered On Renters Insurance?
Whether you work from home or are sending a student to college with renters insurance, it’s important to know when computers are covered under renters insurance.
Holly, you pointed out that you don’t use the computer for business. That’s important because if you did you might need an endorsement or separate policy to cover the computer. In this case, it’s personal property. While school certainly is a full time job, it doesn’t count here for business or employment purposes. That means the business use exclusion isn’t relevant. Great catch though all the same!
Does Renters Insurance Cover Computers?
When finding out if renters insurance covers computers, it is important to look at the insurance carrier. Although they’re comparatively rare, some carriers have exclusions or sub limits in their policies. Rare doesn’t mean non-existent though, so watch out for them. That being said, you’ll obviously want to take pictures of the serial number and model number and keep them off-site. Your email is a great place to store stuff like that because it’s off-site and then backed up to another off-site location generally.
Does Renters Insurance Cover Computers?
You’ll need to establish the value of your computer, which the pictures mentioned above can help with a great deal. After reading your policy carefully to determine what coverage may be present for software applications, you’ll also need to establish the value of the software that is installed on the computer. But, there’s another thing you need to watch out for. Your data, or the contents of the physical computer, is not covered under a renters insurance policy. Generally, the policy limits liability to replacing the physical media on which the data was written. You’ll get a new CD-R, but you won’t get someone to rewrite your thesis for you.
Examples like this are why it’s so important to make sure you understand your renters insurance policy. The insurance experts at Effective Coverage can help you understand your coverage, and even review your existing policy for you! Call Effective Coverage at (800)892-4308 for more information and to find out, does renters insurance cover computers!