We appreciate you taking the time to review our Aurora, CO renters insurance guide. Did you know that, nationwide, just forty-four percent of renters have renters insurance? Millions of renters are without the protection that a Colorado Renters Insurance policy can provide.
Most renters don’t know how much renters insurance can help them, and a common mistake is to think that they have nothing worth insuring. Read on, learn more, and then reach out to a friendly renters insurance expert to find out how easily you can be protected.
Why Do I Need Aurora, CO Renters Insurance When I Don’t Have Anything To Insure?
Because you do have things to insure! You’d be amazed at how quickly those things you think aren’t worth anything add up. Remember that generally renters insurance comes with replacement cost on contents. That means that your ancient couch, gifted to you years ago by your parents when they bought a new one, would be claimed at the cost to buy something equivalent today, not at the actual cash value of the couch. Take a mental walk around your apartment or home looking at the cost to actually replace all the furniture, electronics, clothes, and other things you’ve acquired.
Now do you think you have something to insure? The average renter in Colorado has about $20,000 of personal property they’d need to replace in the event of a fire or other total loss. The average renter in Colorado, however, does not have twenty grand lying around in cash to go purchase new things with. Electronics alone can often run to five thousand dollars or more.
Beyond that, think about your liability. Do you know what one of the number one causes of apartment fires is in Colorado? Smoking materials that have been improperly disposed of. All it takes is setting a cigarette or other smoking material down for a brief moment and not making sure it’s balanced on the ashtray. A minute later, the entire apartment complex is up in flames.
Can you afford to replace everything the other victims own out of your pocket? Can you pay the twenty-five thousand dollar commercial insurance deductible on the building itself? The answer is probably no in both cases. But by having Aurora, CO renters insurance, you’ve transferred that risk from yourself to the insurance carrier. That means everyone gets made whole, or at least in proportion to the size of their loss, and it means the landlord and his insurance company don’t have to chase you down for that money that you don’t have.
Most Colorado renters couldn’t even afford a few nights in a hotel if they were to suffer a fire, or if the neighbor had a fire and the entire building couldn’t be used for a few days while they cleaned up the aftermath. Renters insurance in Aurora, CO covers those losses as well, through something called additional living expenses coverage. If a covered loss like a fire prevents you from using your apartment, your coverage kicks in to help with those additional living expenses.
Circling back to the improperly disposed of smoking materials, what if you had a friend over and they were burned by your cigarette or other smoking material? Can you afford an urgent care visit for them? Probably not. Renters insurance in Aurora also comes with coverage for medical payments to others, usually ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. That would cover his injuries without you having to admit fault.
Trust us when we say you definitely have many things to insure, and many risks to insure against!
My Landlord Requires Renters Insurance In Colorado, Can He Do That?
He sure can! Landlords can require all manner of things in Colorado, just by writing them into your lease. Did you miss the provision about quiet hours in the complex? Most people do, until they get nailed with it. You might also have missed the provision that says “If you don’t have renters insurance, you owe us an additional twenty-five dollars a month.” Yes, that’s written into many leases.
Rent is already a struggle for most people, they don’t want to pay another $25 a month just to avoid having renters insurance in Aurora, CO. But do you know what the worst part is? Colorado Renters Insurance costs less than the fee for not having a policy! The average renters insurance in Aurora, CO costs between fifteen and eighteen dollars a month. It’s actually cheaper to have the coverage than to pay that $25 monthly charge your landlord sticks you with if you don’t have a policy!
Most people expect the coverage to cost quite a bit more than that, and with the cost of auto insurance in Colorado, we don’t blame them. But as part of the education initiative, Effective Coverage is working to smash those misconceptions and make sure that people are making informed choices about their coverage. Renters insurance generally costs less than $200 a year in Aurora, CO, and you might well get a discount for paying in full or in two payments. That makes it even less expensive.
You’d have to save that $200 a year for the rest of your life and never have a single property loss in order to even break even as opposed to buying renters insurance. The odds would not be in your favor in that case! Worse, what if you had a loss after you put only the first $200 in savings? Would that $200 cover your stuff? Absolutely not. But it would cover a year of renters insurance that would cover your property and give you additional protection as well…
My Roommate Has Renters Insurance In Aurora, CO. Do I Need My Own Policy?
Probably. First of all, are you related to your roommate? Sometimes brothers will share an apartment, for example. In that case, the policy says right in the definitions section that you’re both covered, because coverage applies to the named insured and resident relatives. So you’d be just fine there. An added bonus for taking the chance on sharing an apartment with a sibling, The same applies to spouses, as well. They don’t need to be listed, they’re defined as a named insure in the same part of the policy we referenced above.
On the other hand, if you’re not related and not married, it gets stickier. If you’re living unmarried with a partner, you might want to just add them as an additional named insured. This is appropriate for people who choose cohabitation over marriage for personal reasons, and have lived together for some times. It is not necessarily appropriate for younger relationships. Why? Because it’s very difficult to remove an additional named insured from the policy, and you don’t want that huge claim check coming with your ex-girlfriend’s name on it! That would not only mean you’d need her signature to cash it, but also that she had a claim to part of that money, even though it was all your stuff.
So what’s the alternative? You can endorse an unmarried, unrelated household resident onto the policy. That gives them coverage under the policy, but doesn’t make them a named insured. If they move out, as roommates do, you just remove the endorsement or change it to reflect the name of the new roommate. Generally this runs about five dollars a month, and it’s well worth doing.
The best option, however, is for everyone living in the apartment to have their own policy. Splitting a fifteen dollar a month bill with a roommate is not really worth the time. Everyone in the apartment gets the coverage they believe they need, there are no issues with claim checks made out to multiple people, and there’s no concerns about what happens if the policyholder doesn’t elect for enough coverage for everyone.
By the way, your kids who live with you are covered regardless. They’re obviously related to you, and they can’t legally contract for anything as minors. That means they can’t be on an insurance policy as a named insured or additional named insured, so the policy protects them by default because there’s really no other practical way to cover them since your five year old can’t exactly get their own policy.
Renting In Aurora, CO
Aurora, CO is a city of 339,000 residents, but it still technically qualifies as a suburb of Denver. The population has grown over 22% since 2000, and a disproportionate amount of that has been in the form of new residents flocking to Colorado due to two significant legal changes in recent years which make the state more attractive for same sex couples and patients with chronic pain and certain other ailments. The median home price is just $177,000, though that’s a large improvement since 2000 when it was just $139,700.
Many people in Aurora are able to rent for a number of years and then become homeowners after saving for down payments and expenses, but many more simply choose to rent because they prefer the maintenance-free lifestyle. The median gross rent is just $941, and if you factor in maintenance, taxes, and homeowners insurance, it’s far cheaper to rent even when you’re paying for Colorado Renters Insurance as well.
The official elevation of Aurora is 5,471 feet, and it’s a high city. New residents often require some time to adjust to the elevation. One thing that surprises many new residents is that even up in the mountains, tornadoes are not uncommon. Generally that risk is thought of as being specific to flat areas, but with the right conditions they can happen even in the mountains. Warnings are frequent, touchdowns are not. Touchdowns only tend to happen every few years, but warnings are still worth paying attention to. Fortunately, windstorms are generally a covered loss on Aurora, CO renters insurance policies. This means that you can worry about safety, and not the risk to your property. Hailstorms are common, as well, and also are a covered peril. Hail is generally less concerning to renters, however, as it’s less likely than a windstorm to damage the building such that one’s personal property is at risk.
Aurora is a younger city, with 35% of households having children under the age 18 living with them. Young families add a vibrancy to the city that is rarely found elsewhere. Aurora works hard to keep the Colorado feel even within the city limits, with more than 100 parks, 6,000 acres of green space, and six golf courses run by the city which have won awards. There are also quite a few privately owned golf courses, as well.
Transportation is provided by I-70, I-225, and the E-470 beltway. A regional light rail system serves the southwestern corner of the city, as well, with buses available to add to the options. Extensions of the light rail service are planned to parallel I-225 and connect with commuter rail that runs from downtown Denver and the Denver International Airport.
Aurora is a great place to live, with many positive things going for it. Once you find your new home here, make sure you protect it with Aurora, CO renters insurance from Effective Coverage. The renters insurance experts can get you the coverage you need for just a few dollars a month. All you have to do is take just a moment to call (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need Aurora renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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