Growing The Number Of Sunflower State Renters With Kansas Renters Insurance
- Kansas has far more renters than you might expect.
- Renting single-family homes and apartments in Kansas are both popular choices.
- Kansas is more than agriculture. Five major cities dominate the state’s economy.
Many people in Kansas rent their homes. While much of the state is amber waves of grain, large cities concentrate people in a way that lends itself to apartment construction. Where people are present, someone is willing to build apartments. Are apartments not what comes to mind when you think of Kansas? It’s a question of perspective. Don’t look at Kansas as fields and interstates. Consider Kansas as the confluence of five major cities and their environs, with more than 100,000 people each, that still have room to grow. Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, and Topeka all are great cities to live in, and large cities by most folks’ definitions.
If you want the benefits of an urban area, but with less hassle, Kansas has options there as well. Lawrence is a city of nearly 100,000. Shawnee has much to offer, including 64,000 residents. Manhattan, Lenexa, and Salina are growing rapidly. With all of this growth comes an increase in the number of Kansas renters. According to the NMHC, a quarter-million people live in Kansas apartments. The number of renters across the state is actually rather higher than that, because apartments don’t include single-family rentals in Kansas or other non-owned living situations.
As cities grow, and people prosper, and standards of living increase, how do these renters protect their new lifestyles? Kansas is a relatively safe state in terms of crime risk, but the risk of fire or other situations outside your control is ever-present no matter where you live. Your property may also be at risk from tornadoes. What’s the solution, as a tenant? Kansas renters insurance protects you from all of these things and more at a cost of only a few dollars a month. Many people harbor misconceptions about renters insurance in Kansas, which part of why only forty-four percent of renters have a policy.
As The Smart Way To Insure Your Home for Kansas renters, Effective Coverage is dedicated to dispelling those misconceptions and offering affordable options that meet your needs. Our mission is providing solutions for those buying and requiring insurance, because insurance is our world, and we want you to get back to yours. renters insurance in Kansas is now available online in just sixty seconds. If you’d rather speak at length with someone to discuss coverage, our friendly insurance experts are ready to take the time to answer your questions. If you’re a landlord, Effective Coverage offers efficient solutions for renters insurance compliance tracking in Kansas as well as dwelling fire and landlord insurance in Kansas.
Whether you need renters insurance in Kansas, you’re looking for insurance certificate tracking solutions, or you need a landlord policy, Effective Coverage has the answers. We make it easy so you can get back to the rest of your life. We’re easy to reach online, by web chat, or by calling a friendly insurance expert at (800)892-4308.
2017 Kansas Renters Insurance Guide Table Of Contents
- Why Do I Need Kansas Renters Insurance?
- What's The Easiest Certificate Tracking Program In 2017?
- How Much Is Renters Insurance In Kansas?
- What's Covered On Kansas Renters Insurance In 2017?
- Does Liability Coverage From Kansas Renters Insurance Replace My Security Deposit?
- Kansas Renters Insurance Fast Facts
- Bonus Section: 2017 Guide To Renting In Kansas
Why Do I Need Kansas Renters Insurance?
- “Why do I need it?” is the most common question people ask about renters insurance in Kansas.
- Your policy doesn’t insure the building, only your liability for damage to the property of others.
- Liability coverage protects you from the landlord’s insurance company suing you for those damages, in a process called subrogation.
- Coverage for personal property is at replacement cost, so you can buy new property for you, your kids, and your family.
“Why do I need renters insurance in Kansas?” is perhaps the single most common question we are asked. Often, the question is followed by a comment about “the landlord making me insure his building” or how the person “has nothing worth protecting,” and so they don’t think they need to cover personal property. Both of these misunderstandings are quite common.
The landlord isn’t making you insure his building.
- You couldn’t insure the landlord’s property, since you have no insurable interest in it. (You don’t suffer a financial loss if the building is damaged.)
- Residential leases don’t make you responsible for damage that “just happens” to the building, like a tornado, the way certain commercial leases might.
- The landlord insures the building, as required by their mortgage company and the good common sense found in most landlords.
The building is the landlord’s responsibility, and your renters insurance in Kansas isn’t going to cover the building. The entire section that would offer such coverage on a homeowners policy has been stripped from the renters policy form. The coverage just isn’t there.
What your renters insurance in Kansas does cover is your liability for damage to the building. You’re not responsible to insure the building, but you are responsible if your negligence causes damage to the building. This is the same as your responsibility for any bodily injury or property damage caused by your negligence, or failure to act with due care. Liability coverage on renters insurance is for you, and covers you for any such instance. If you have a kitchen fire that damages the cabinets and causes smoke damage to your neighbor, there’s coverage. Similarly, if you give your shopping cart a shove in the parking lot instead of putting it away, and it dents someone’s new Porsche, you’re responsible for that damage and your policy offers coverage for it.
Anyone who believes that they have nothing worth protecting has a fundamental misunderstanding of the way that renters insurance works.
- Kansas renters insurance offers replacement cost coverage.
- If a fire destroys your furniture, you get the money to replace it with new furniture of like kind and quality.
- No age-related depreciation is subtracted from the loss.
- Even if you’re just starting out and don’t have much, what you do have is worth replacing if it’s lost.
Additionally, liability and personal property are not the only types of coverage available. The standard renters insurance policy in Kansas also offers coverage for additional living expenses following a covered loss, as well as a small medical payments to others coverage. Medical payments to others is designed to make a small payment to a guest in your home who suffers an injury, where there is no actual fault to be found. Additional living expenses pays for a hotel and other costs when a covered loss prevents you from using your apartment as your residence.
What's The Easiest Insurance Certificate Tracking Program In 2017?
Landlords are often looking for easy ways to track renters insurance and tenant compliance with a renters insurance requirement. The easiest certificate tracking program in 2017 is one that makes tracking quick and painless while also ensuring accuracy. Effective Coverage offers easy certificate tracking programs like Renters Liability Pro. Residents have the option to purchase insurance or to pay a fee for not having insurance. Those fees can fund losses caused by residents without insurance, and can even become a profit center.
Certificate tracking and additional interest tracking that ensures every resident has a policy is also available as a standard program. Residents simply instruct their agent to add Effective Coverage as an additional interest, with the address of our processing center. Notifications are processed with our proprietary technology and policy status changes appear in the system, allowing you and your leasing agents to focus on leasing your property to 100% rather than on processing mail.
Commercial certificate tracking programs and customized solutions are available as well. Simply call (800)892-4308 and press 3 to be connected to a specialist.
How Much Is Renters Insurance In Kansas?
The national average price of renters insurance is $187.00 per year, or about fifteen dollars a month. The price of Kansas renters insurance is generally about fifteen dollars a month, as well. Keep in mind that’s the average, so some pay a little less and some pay a little more. What impacts the price of your policy?
Your location is a factor. Urban areas offer a different set of risks than rural areas, and pricing of policies reflects this. Your credit can be a factor, due to the use of credit-based insurance scores. The number of unrelated people to whom a policy extends coverage can certainly impact the price. Previous claims are relevant, and the amount of time you’ve lived in the residence can play a part as well. Overall losses in previous years are a factor when rates are set.
A wide variety of factors go into the price of renters insurance in Kansas, and only some of them are within your control. That’s why it’s so important to work with an insurance expert to find the intersection of the best price and the best coverage for your needs. Shopping on price alone can leave you with unpleasant surprises when it’s time to make a claim, and shopping on coverage alone can leave you paying more than is strictly necessary, with extra coverage you may not need.
What's Covered On Kansas Renters Insurance In 2017?
Kansas renters insurance in 2017 covers more than ever before. You’re still covered for the same list of named renters insurance perils as always, of course. But as more and more of our lives are dependent on electronic devices, the cost of replacing personal property grows, along with the importance of renters insurance. Did you know that there’s coverage on your policy for damage to the property of others, even if you’re not at fault? Additional coverage like that helps to take care of small mishaps that are just part of life.
The costs of a bodily injury claim are higher than ever, as this country remains in a healthcare crisis. Whether or not someone has health insurance to deal with their injuries is irrelevant. If you’re responsible for the bodily injury, someone is going to sue you. If uninsured, the injured person or the hospital could sue you. If they have health insurance, their health insurance company is likely to sue you to recover anything they can of what was paid on those injuries. Subrogation is how insurance companies recover money that was paid out on a policyholder’s behalf due to someone else’s negligence.
When that happens, renters insurance in Kansas includes a “duty to defend” you as the insured. That means the insurance company will lawyer up on your behalf, paying the legal fees for your defense against the claim. The lawyer represents you, not the insurance company. Your defense costs are paid because the insurance company doesn’t want to pay fraudulent or exaggerated claims for policyholders who can’t afford an attorney for a protracted legal battle.
There’s more to renters insurance than just paying for the loss. Various parts of the policy all work together to provide you with broad protection, and many people are unaware that they have these protections. If you’re sued or someone is talking about suing you for a negligent act that they allege caused them to suffer a loss, who should your first call be? Your insurance company. Put them on notice of the claim or potential claim, and they can take it from there.
Does Liability Coverage From Kansas Renters Insurance Replace My Security Deposit?
No. Renters insurance in Kansas is not a replacement for your security deposit.
- Security deposits are for small damages to your apartment and don’t restrict the cause of loss.
- Renters insurance covers liability for any damage to the building itself due to your negligence.
- Your policy also covers fire, smoke, and explosion damage to your individual apartment.
- Renters insurance is intended for large losses that most people couldn’t pay for on their own.
There are security deposit bond products which are used by some communities to replace security deposits. These are technically a form of insurance, but reading the fine print is crucial. While these deposit bonds allow a resident to move in for less money, the cost of the bond is not refundable. In the event that damages require a payment from the security deposit, the issuer will make the payment and then hunt you down to recover that payment.
In reality, these products don’t work if they can’t recover the money that’s paid. That give issuing companies a substantial incentive to use every collection tactic possible to recover their loss from the person who caused the loss. For someone who always takes impeccable care of their home and never causes damages, they can be a good deal. For most people, however, security deposit bonds are a bad deal because of their non-refundability as well as the collection costs and lawsuits that can result.
Kansas Renters Insurance Fast Facts
- The average price of renters insurance in Kansas is about fifteen dollars a month.
- Most landlords in Kansas will require you to have renters insurance.
- Most landlords also want to be an additional interest so they’re notified of policy status changes to help with insurance tracking and certificate tracking.
- The average fire loss per structure is $20,700 according to the NFPA.
- 26% of Americans have no emergency savings, and 36% of Americans don’t even have retirement savings. This causes fire and other losses to be devastating.
- The average American has a bank account balance of about four thousand dollars.
- Renters insurance protects you from liability risk, risk to your personal property, and costs incurred following a covered loss
Bonus Section: 2017 Guide To Renting In Kansas
Finding An Apartment In Kansas
A quarter of a million people in Kansas live in apartments. There are, of course, many more renters than that living in a variety of other situations ranging from single-family homes to illegal basement apartments with code problems. Just like anywhere else, the quality of life enjoyed by a renter varies widely by the type of housing they can afford and the type of rental housing that is available to them.
Finding an apartment in Kansas can be difficult. Apartments simply aren’t being built in some parts of the state. In other parts of the state, there is a construction boom but the wrong kind of apartments are being built. Some developers focus on building luxury apartments because the return on investment is so much greater. That’s understandable, but it leaves a sizable portion of the rental market out in the cold.
In areas with a shortage of available rentals, many people outside the higher end of the market can find themselves forced into less than ideal rental situations. Whether it’s a bad roommate or an unsafe apartment, a tight rental housing market creates serious problems for many people. This is exacerbated in Kansas, where rental assistance programs often have long waiting lists and can be drastically underfunded.
To find an apartment in Kansas, you can start with apartment search websites. Keep in mind that many sites do not frequently update the availability of units in apartment communities. You’ll have to call the communities directly to confirm availability. In addition to these sites, spending time walking through your desired neighborhood can help you to identify units with signs indicating they are available but might not be advertised online.
You are under no obligation to apply for or to lease any particular apartment, even after viewing it. If something feels “off,” you probably want to pass on it. Even though the rental market is tight, your obligation is to yourself to ensure that you’re in a safe and secure home that meets your needs. You may have to view a number of apartments to find one that’s right for you and your family.
Kansas Tenant Rights
What protections are offered to tenants in Kansas? What are your obligations? How can your protect yourself if you discover problems that your landlord won’t address? If you do not have a written lease, Kansas statutes require you to “pay as rent the fair rental value for the use and occupancy of the dwelling unit.” If you and the landlord disagree on what that number is and have no written lease, you’ve got a serious problem. Always get a written lease.
The landlord and tenant both have a right to include nearly any condition they want in the lease, as long as both agree on it and the agreement is made at the time of the signing of the lease. Those conditions cannot be changed after signing except through a mutually signed amendment. If the landlord fails to sign the agreement, but the tenant has signed and delivered it to the landlord, the landlord’s acceptance of rent payments has the same effect as the landlord’s signature on the lease would. Leases that come into force in this way are only valid for a maximum term of one year.
You cannot waive any rights given to you by the law in your lease, and your landlord may not ask you to do so. No agreement by either party to pay the others’ attorney fees is valid. In Kansas, you and your landlord are obligated to jointly conduct an “inventory” of the premises within five days of your taking possession of it, noting the condition of the premises and any furnishings or appliances. You are also entitled to a copy of this walk-through report.
In Kansas, unfurnished apartments may not require a security deposit in excess of one month of rent. Furnished apartments may charge one and one-half months of rent for security. Subsidized housing follows separate rules and generally includes payment plans for the deposit. The landlord is often responsible for providing utilities, hot and cold running water, and premises in good repair.
If the landlord materially fails to comply with their obligations to maintain safe and habitable premises with a health or safety impact, the tenant may terminate the lease on written notice. The notice is effective thirty days from the next periodic rent-paying date. In other words, if it’s the 15th of the month, it’s really 45 days written notice. If, at that point, the landlord makes a good-faith effort to remedy the problem, the tenant’s notice of termination of the lease has no effect and the lease continues. The landlord has fourteen days to begin this good-faith effort after receiving the notice. If the same or similar problem recurs after the fourteen-day period, the tenant may again deliver the same thirty days plus notice, starting the process over again.
While Kansas tenant protections aren’t quite as robust as in some states, it’s still a good place to rent. Just make sure you plan ahead to find the home you’re looking for so you don’t get stuck with what happens to be available. Most people love living in Kansas, so once you’ve found the perfect home, make sure you have the perfect protection. Just call (800)892-4308 or click above to get the Kansas renters insurance you need with easy payments and coverage you can rely on. Effective Coverage insurance experts are happy to answer your questions and help you to understand what type and amount of coverage may best fit your personal situation.
