Renters and tenants insurance

What does tenants insurance cover?

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?

What’s covered by your tenants insurance will vary from one policy to another, but most will include:

• Loss or damage to your household possessions - Covers damage caused by risks like fire, theft and attempted theft, vandalism, floods and storms and water leaks. 
• Personal possessions cover - Protects your things when you take them out and about with you, away from the house. So, if your laptop falls and breaks in a cafe or your phone gets stolen when you’re out with friends, you can make a claim. This type of cover may be included as standard or available to buy as an add-on.
• Tenants liability cover - Covers accidental damage to your landlord’s property, plus legal costs if you have to go to court over a dispute.
• Loss of frozen food - If food in your freezer is spoiled or damaged, the policy will pay up to a certain amount.
• New for old - The policy will replace damaged or stolen items with brand-new equivalents, even if your items have depreciated in value over time.

Read your policy documents to see exactly what you’re covered for.

What's not covered?

Each policy will have a set of exclusions to watch out for. Things that won’t be covered by most policies are:

• Wear and tear or mechanical breakdown - Contents insurance doesn’t cover damage to your possessions that happens gradually over time, or the mechanical breakdown of things like your TV and laptop.
• Unoccupied properties - Policies will only cover an empty home for a limited amount of time - usually up to 30 consecutive days (though some may allow up to 60 days). So If you’re going away for an extended period, you need to let your insurer know.
• Excess - The pre-agreed amount you need to pay towards any claim you make.
• Poor workmanship - The cost of repairing and fixing any defective work you’ve had carried out isn’t covered.
• Negligence - Damage or theft that happened to your contents because you didn’t lock doors and windows is considered negligence, so providers will usually reject the claim.
• Items valued over the policy limit - If the amount it costs to repair or replace your contents exceeds the sum insured on your policy (the total amount you’re covered for), you’ll be underinsured and will have to pay the difference to replace your items. Single item limits are also applicable which is the most your insurer will pay out for any one item. This is typically between £1,000 - £2,000. You can usually list these items separately on your policy by contacting your insurer.
• Home business belongings - If you have business equipment (not including office furniture or your laptop) it probably won’t be covered under a standard contents insurance policy.
• Rent arrears - Home contents insurance won’t cover your rent if you’re unable to pay.

Is it worth getting tenants insurance?

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:

• You live in a high-crime area with a greater risk of burglaries
• You live in an area that’s prone to flooding

How much contents cover do I need?

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.