Frequently, we’re approached by someone whose landlord required them to carry a certain amount of renters insurance liability coverage. The conversation usually goes something like this:
How can I get just renters insurance liability? My landlord decided to require liability, but I think it’s a waste of money. I’m not paying one cent more than I have to. I want to get just renters insurance liability. Nothing else.
How Can I Get Just Liability Coverage On Renters Insurance?
Some people want the absolute bare minimum coverage to satisfy their property management. They ask if it’s possible to get just liability on their renters insurance.
How Can I Get Just Renters Insurance Liability?
How Can I Get Just Renters Insurance Liability?
When we’re asked this question, it’s usually in regards to money. Oddly, it’s usually the people with the most to lose who ask the question. The people who know they can’t afford to replace personal property don’t usually ask. This is because they’re happy to have coverage for their stuff that they might not have even known was available. Liability insurance is possible, but it can’t be called renters insurance, and it never, ever ends well.
These liability only policies (which leasing agents were allegedly referring to as renters insurance in the above link) are not renters insurance. The suit in the Ash Street Place apartments fire alleges that an insurance carrier was billing $113 per year for a liability insurance policy which was falsely marketed as renters insurance. What is renters insurance? Renters insurance is an HO-4 (or, if you need Texas renters insurance, an HO-BT will also qualify) which provides personal property coverage, medical payments to others, liability coverage, and loss of use coverage. The term renters insurance has a very specific meaning, and you cannot get just renters insurance liability. The policy would then become a liability policy, rather than what it claims to be.
The real question is why would you want just renters insurance liability? The victims in the apartment fire referenced above were paying over a hundred dollars a year to have liability coverage and nothing more. Did you know that in certain states, renters insurance can cost less than a hundred dollars a year? The national average is around fifteen dollars a month, but we’ve seen actual renters insurance policies for half that or less.
They’re rare, but they do exist.
So your choices are liability only coverage for more money than plain old renters insurance might cost you. Why would anyone risk that they’ll never have a personal property loss, in order to pay more money than they would for a renters insurance policy? It just doesn’t seem like a sound financial move in any way.
So the answer to how can you get just renters insurance liability is, you can’t. It wouldn’t be renters insurance. On the other hand, you can cover liability and protect your family’s personal property for less than a liability insurance policy might otherwise cost.
Contact Effective Coverage at (800)892-4308 to learn about the difference between renters insurance and liability insurance, and to see how inexpensive it can be to protect what’s important to you. You can even get an online renters insurance quote by clicking above.