Renter's Insurance covers fire loss.

Some Tenants and parents ask why us we require Renter's Insurance.  Some people think Renter's Insurance only cover's personal belongings.  The truth is a small part of the Renter's Insurance policy does cover your personal belongings but the larger and most important coverage is the Tenant's Liability. 

Tenant Liability protects a Tenant from a lawsuit and also pays for accidental Tenant damages (s)he may cause such as a fire or other property damage.  Check with your agent to see exactly what is covered under your policy.

Below are photos of a kitchen fire in 2012.  This could happen to anyone.  In this case a pot of cooking oil was left on a hot burner during an exciting football game.  This 10 minute distraction was all it took to cause all this damage.

Fortunatly, this Tenant was covered under a Renter's Insurance policy and the entire cost to clean up the mess and repair the damages was paid by the insurnace company not the Tenant or Co-Signer.   In just a few minutes this fire caused many thousand dollars of smoke and fire damage  (mostly smoke damage).  Fortunatly, this was a small fire that was extinguished very quickly.   Most fire losses are much bigger and more expensive than this one.  Without insurance, the Tenant would have been responsible for the entire cost to repair this damage.

This grease fire started on the stove top.  Note the stove control knobs are melted.   The damge to the wall behind was caused by a fireman's ax searching for hidden fires.  Thank you HFD for doing such a fast and complete job putting out this fire. 

The cabinets are still white inside but chared and smoke damaged on the outside.

  Smoke and soot quickly spreads all over the walls and ceilings.

This is a nearby room filled with smoke an hour after the fire was extingushed.

  Fire extinguishers save lies and reduce property damage.  Notice the hand prints in the soot where the Tenant removed the fire extinguisher from the bracket.

In our twenty three years of property management, there have been three fires at our various properties.   Two caused by the careless disposal of cigarettes and this one caused by overheating a pot of cooking oil.  Because we furnish our homes with plenty or smoke alarms and fire extinguishers and require our Tenants to have Renter's Insurance, a fire like this was only an annoyance and not a financial tragety for a Tenants and Co-Signers.

For most of our Tenants, they are covered free of charge under their parent's home owner's insurance.  For everyone else annual coverage is typically about $100.00.  Wether you rent a property from us or anyone else, this is coverage you shouldn't be without.