What insurance do I need if I rent?
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Find out what insurance you need to protect your belongings when you’re sharing accommodation.
This is a type of contents insurance policy for people who live in a shared property.
It’s typically designed for housemates, flatmates, renters and people living in university accommodation.
Also known as renters’ insurance, this will cover your belongings against damage and loss from things like flooding, fire and burglary while they’re in your shared house or flat.
When you’re living with others there’s an increased risk of accidents, theft and damage happening to the things you own, so it’s a good idea to make sure they’re covered.
While your landlord will have insurance, this usually only covers the building, as well as any furniture and items they own in the property.
So, if you want your belongings to be protected, you’ll need to take out your own cover.
Although you don’t legally need to have contents insurance, it can protect anything from clothes and books, through to laptops and smart TVs, so it’s worth considering.
What’s more, it could help you cover some hefty costs if several items were stolen or damaged at once and needed replacing.
When you’re sharing accommodation, there’ll be more people going in and out of the property.
For this reason, insurers tend to view occupants of shared houses as being at higher risk of making a claim for theft or damage, which can make your premiums more expensive.
A standard contents insurance policy will cover the entire home - so if one housemate claims on it, everyone else's premium would be affected when the policy’s up for renewal.
Instead, you can take out a stand-alone policy that covers just your room and belongings. This can help make sure you’ve got the right level of cover and keep your claims history as clean as possible, too.
Shared housing insurance will cover you, as the policyholder, and your contents. Policies will vary, but most will include:
The exclusions tend to be the same as a regular contents policy. Again, these will vary between policies but exclusions typically include:
Your renters’ contents insurance will typically cover your belongings in your rented accommodation against loss and damage from:
When you take out contents insurance for your belongings in shared accommodation there are some things to look out for:
It’s worth reading your policy documents carefully, so that you understand what is and isn’t included in your cover. And always contact your provider if you’re still unsure.
To get the right cover when you live in a shared house, calculate the entire value of your household contents. It'll give you a rough idea how much cover you may need.
Having your possessions protected while you’re at university means one less thing to worry about when you’re working towards your degree.
Valuable items like laptops, TVs, tablets and mobiles are all expensive to replace and are potentially more at risk of theft when you’re staying in halls of residence.
Many universities offer students contents insurance for their room in halls, so it’s worth looking into what this covers and comparing policies.
You’ll also find several insurance providers offer specialist contents protection for student tenants at university.
It may also be possible for students’ parents to extend their home insurance policy to cover their child staying in halls. This would cost extra, so again it’s worth comparing this with the price of the student taking out a separate policy.
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