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Protect the belongings in your rented home
Tenants insurance is contents insurance for renters.
It’ll cover your belongings while they’re in your rented house or flat and pays out if they’re stolen or damaged by an unexpected event like a fire or burst pipe.
Most policies also include tenants liability cover for accidental damage to your landlord’s items. This could save you from losing your deposit because of a mishap like breaking a window.
Tenants insurance covers your personal property that’s not fixed to the home. Everything from your clothes, gadgets and books, to any furniture you may have if the place you’re renting is unfurnished.
Any permanent part of the property, like the walls, roof and windows aren’t your responsibility to insure as a tenant. Your landlord will need their own landlord buildings insurance for that.
What’s covered by your tenants insurance will vary from one policy to another, but most will include:
Read your policy documents to see exactly what you’re covered for.
Each policy will have a set of exclusions to watch out for. Things that won’t be covered by most policies are:
You don’t legally need tenants insurance, so it’s your choice. But you need to think about whether you could afford to replace your belongings if something like a burglary or fire were to happen.
You won’t need to take out buildings insurance though because that’s your landlord’s responsibility. If you’re renting a furnished property, it’s your landlord’s responsibility to insure the furniture that they provide as well.
But your landlord’s contents insurance will only cover the items in their property that they own. It won’t cover your possessions too.
Some properties are at higher risk than others. You might especially want to consider tenants insurance if:
Our data showed that customers pay on average £66 a year for contents insurance.**
How much you pay will depend on a few factors, such as the sum insured you opt for and whether you live in a high-crime or flood-risk area.
**The average price paid annually for home insurance purchased in April 2023 by type of cover. For buildings and contents insurance, it was £172. For buildings insurance only, it was £139. For contents insurance only, it was £60.
It depends on the total value of your possessions. You need to calculate what it would cost you to replace everything you own. Our contents insurance calculator can help you work out how much your possessions are worth.
You can usually save money by paying for the whole year in one go, rather than in monthly instalments
If you let your tenants insurance auto-renew, you might not be getting the best deal
Accurately calculate the value of your contents so you don’t end up under or overinsured and only pay for the optional extras that you need
Ask your landlord if they would upgrade the locks and alarms – it’ll protect their investment, as well as your possessions
Always make sure that you set it at a sum you'd be able to afford comfortably if you needed to make a claim though
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Page last reviewed: 07 March 2023
Page reviewed by Jasmine Hembury
^UK residents and home insurance purchases only. Excess refunded after claim settled. Excludes accidental loss or damage claims made on your home insurance. Full T&Cs apply.
**The average price paid annually for home insurance purchased in April 2023 by type of cover. For buildings and contents insurance, it was £172. For buildings insurance only, it was £139. For contents insurance only, it was £60.
[2]As of September 2023, there are 66 active home insurers on the panel at Go.Compare