Thanks for taking the time to review our Albany, NY renters insurance guide. Whether you need coverage in Albany, Guilderland, Schenectady, or even in points north like Glens Falls, you’ve come to the right place. The New York Renters Insurance experts are here to help you get the best coverage at the best price. Education is a key part of our core values, and many people ask why that is – the answer is that the majority of renters in Albany don’t have renters insurance and that’s often because they don’t realize its necessity, or because they believe its too expensive.
But for example, a family at Sisson Reserve Apartments in Moreau, NY just north of Albany, were able to quickly rebuild their lives when Glens Falls renters insurance covered them after a fire. If it hadn’t been for that coverage, they would not have had the funds out of pocket to rebuild. Luckily, they knew that the coverage was available and made a wise investment because they took the time to research it and educate themselves. Effective Coverage makes these city and state renters insurance guides available so that the information is out there for people who think they might need the coverage but still have questions and concerns.
Effective Coverage doesn’t just sell Albany renters insurance. We carefully train local renters insurance experts to make sure they’re able to answer all your questions and customize the perfect policy for you at the right price. Effective Coverage renters insurance experts work by the hour, not on commission, so you always know you’re getting the right answer – not the answer that makes someone money. Effective Coverage is able to focus on Albany, NY renters insurance because it’s what we do. We’re not here to upsell you or to offer some other coverage that you don’t need, we’re here to make sure your renters insurance is done right and your questions are answered.
You can find an Albany, NY insurance agency on practically every street corner in the city. But most of them will be looking to sell you something larger than an Albany renters insurance policy. Most agencies find that their bread and butter are larger policies like auto or homeowners. Effective Coverage specializes in renters insurance and can therefore best advise you on an Albany renters insurance policy. Because of the volume of policies and the incremental improvements we’ve made to the entire process, we don’t have to try to sell you something else and we can take the time to help you understand why you need the coverage and how to get it easily. If you already know what you want on your Albany renters insurance policy, we have a solution for that, as well. You can easily click above and bind coverage online in just minutes.
If you choose the online option, remember that you’re working directly with an insurance provider. That means we’re not selling your information and it also means you can freely offer legitimate information without fear of receiving a torrent of phone calls that you don’t want, even after you’ve purchased a policy. Your privacy is protected, and coverage can be instant.
Take a few moments to review our Albany, NY renters insurance guide and then either call or click – it only takes a few minutes to get your family protected, and it costs far less than you might expect. Relax, you’re safe – Effective Coverage for renters is here for you.
Effective Coverage offers the nation's only completely mobile platform to quote and purchase renters insurance right from your phone or tablet in just one minute. Get an online renters insurance quote today and protect your family.
Albany, NY Renters Insurance
How Much Does it Cost?
Albany, NY renters insurance costs about fifteen dollars a month, or $187.00 a year on average. That’s about fifty cents a day, to protect both your personal property and the risk of a liability claim. You’re probably familiar with Junior’s down on Madison Ave, just before you get to Price Chopper. You can’t go into Junior’s on wing night for less than fifteen bucks for one person, realistically, even if you only drink water. Depending on your destination, you might spend fifteen bucks on the NYS Thruway just to pay to use the road, not accounting for gas or random meal stops. Fifteen dollars a month for a policy that can help your family rebuild after a crisis strikes is an incredible value.
Why Do I Need Renters Insurance Liability?
Frequently, we’re asked “I have a security deposit to pay for damages, why is my landlord requiring me to have Albany renters insurance liability as well?” The two are actually designed to cover entirely different sets of circumstances. If you accidentally put a hole in the wall, your deposit covers that. If you cause more than normal wear and tear on your carpet, the security deposit is there for that, as well. But what happens if there’s a fire due to your negligence? That’s well beyond the limit of your security deposit, of course.
“But the landlord has insurance for that,” you say. That’s right, the landlord does generally insure the building. But commercial insurance deductibles can be high – tens of thousands of dollars in many cases. Ultimately, the landlord will sue you for the amount of his deductible if the fire is your fault or caused by your negligence. On top of that, the landlord’s insurance is practically guaranteed to sue you for the amount of money they paid out because of your negligence and the fire. That’s called subrogation, and it’s fairly standard procedure. The idea is that the insurance company makes the landlord whole again, minus his deductible, and then the landlord assigns his right to collect to his insurance company in return for that payment. The landlord’s insurance company then has a basically unlimited right to go after you for the damages, including the deductible if you haven’t already successfully been sued by the landlord for that. A major carrier just won a two million dollar judgment against a couple who was clearly negligent in starting a fire.
Albany, NY renters insurance liability protects you from that situation. First, your Albany renter insurance will actually pay the costs of defending you against claims and suits related to damage from your negligence. That’s standard on insurance policies of most types, and it’s called “duty to defend.” Beyond that, if there is a judgment or a settlement, your policy will pay those amounts so that you don’t have to.
Don’t forget that other people are impacted by the fire your negligence caused as well. People might not be able to use their apartment for weeks or months, they might lose all of their personal property, they might even have medical bills from things like smoke inhalation – all of those things are directly your fault in that sort of situation, and all of those people are going to come after you personally to recover those amounts. Albany renters insurance liability coverage protects you from those risks, as well. As a matter of fact, any claim of bodily injury or property damage resulting from your negligence and not otherwise excluded (criminal acts, for example) are generally covered under your policy. The costs of mounting a legal defense alone would break most people, much less the actual judgment from an incident like that. That’s why you need Albany, NY renters insurance with strong liability coverage.
Why Do I Need Renters Insurance If I Don’t Own Anything?
That’s a two-part question, actually. First, you need Albany renters insurance liability even if you don’t own anything because if there is a judgment or claim against you, it can attach to future assets and earnings as well as things you have now. Even if you’re broke today, do you want your landlord coming after your 401(k) in ten years because the judgment is still out there?
Second, you do own things. People have a habit of undervaluing their personal property because coverage is generally at replacement cost. That means you’d get the amount of money you need to replace the item, not the actual cash value. Let’s take a quick look at a very basic college student apartment and what the Albany renters insurance might cover in the event of a loss.
Item | Actual Cash Value | Replacement Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bed (Mattress, Boxspring, Frame) | $100 | $1,000 |
| Computer, Tablet, Cell Phone | $200 | $2,500 |
| Clothes | $50 | $1,500 |
| Textbooks | $75 | $800 |
| Total | $425 | $5,800 |
Without renters insurance, that college student is out at least $5,800. Those listed items are just a few of the things you’d find in an average college student’s apartment, so you can reasonably expect it to be much more than that. An actual cash value policy would only cover $425 of that loss, whereas a replacement cost policy covers the entirety of the loss minus the deductible. With a typical $500 deductible, that means the insured gets $5,300 to replace the property, kicks in his deductible, and is able to replace those items without having to save up the money or sue the person who caused the fire in order to recover it. That saves time, money, and energy, along with helping the insured get back on their feet quicker.
You own more than you think you do, and it would cost more than you expect to replace it. Unless you actually want to buy an entire household of stuff from the thrift store over on Fuller Road and hope that they have everything you need, it’s imperative to get covered with Albany, NY renters insurance immediately. Remember that the odds of a loss increase roughly logarithmically based on the concentration of people in an apartment building. In a duplex, you have roughly four times the risk of loss as you do in a single-family residence, not the double chance that you would expect. The numbers increase from that point in a similar fashion, so the larger your apartment building or the more people living on your block, the greater the chances of a loss that will impact you and your personal property!
Renting In Albany, NY
Albany is the capital of New York State, and the Albany area is often referred to as the Capital District. Served by I-87 and I-90, Albany is the point at which I-87 northbound becomes the Adirondack Northway and the NYS Thruway makes a hard left onto I-90 and heads westward. East of Albany, a short section of I-90 is not a tollway, though it becomes tolled again as soon as it crosses into Massachusetts.
With a median household income of $42,830 and an average home value of just $178,000, Albany is an affordable place to live. The median gross rent is just shy of $800 a month, allowing for families to live here easily and even save some money towards a down payment on a home. On the west bank of the Hudson River, Albany has both road and water access to New York City, as well as rail access.
Albany, Troy, and Schenectady together make up the Capital District of New York, but Albany is the crown jewel of the region. With 98,000 people choosing to live here, it’s not difficult to see why. Ever since the Dutch settled the area and built Fort Nassau in 1614, Albany has been a growing, changing city. The Dutch started out by building relationships with the Mahican and Mohawk tribes, which led to the start of trade. Trade grew as fur became an important part of the economy, and the city became the state capital in 1797 after American independence was gained. The core of Albany is one of the oldest surviving original settlements, and it’s still possible to determine that many of the streets were originally laid out with horses in mind rather than cars.
Albany is one of the world’s first cities to have installed infrastructures like public water and sewer, gas, and electricity. Albany is a modern city with all the modern conveniences you could want and the city keeps a good handle on infrastructure improvements as they become necessary. Little if any of the original water mains still exist today, for example. But it’s still worth noting that Albany was at the forefront of urban planning and development at that time, and it continues to be so today. One of the first commercial airports opened early in the 20th Century, on land that now contains Albany International Airport. The current Albany International Airport offers connections to any destination worldwide you could want, without the hassle of taking the train down to JFK or LGA or, even more, difficult to get to, EWR. Albany brings the world to its residents.
In the 1960s, a high-rise construction boom led to office buildings being constructed at Empire State Plaza and at the SUNY Albany campus. This is mostly the doing of governor Nelson Rockefeller and is a positive legacy that the Rockefeller family managed to leave for Albany. Though better known for the draconian drug laws they supported, the Rockefellers helped to transform Albany into a modern city that can serve as an example for other cities trying to find their voices in the new century.
Albany has all the conveniences you could want in a modern city, as well as affordable housing and a strong job market with a strong economy behind it. It’s a great place to live, as well as a safe place to live. That’s why it’s so inexpensive to protect your family with Albany, NY renters insurance. Call or click to get covered today, and relax, you’re safe.