Home insurance for rented residences

If you rent your home then your landlord will probably have buildings insurance to cover the actual building. Anything you own needs to be covered by a separate contents insurance policy.

The most basic policies cover your financial losses if your possessions are damaged or destroyed by fire, theft or flood. You can opt for cover for taking things out with you, like mobile phones, jewellery and laptops.

If the home you rent is fully furnished by the landlord, then the chances are that the costs of mending or replacing any damaged items will be taken out of your deposit. You may want to take out a special tenants contents insurance policy which will protect your deposit. Shop around and you will find that these policies can be very reasonably priced.

I you share your rented property with others, you can insure your belongings separately or you can look at a joint policy. This can work out cheaper so it is worth shopping around.

You will need to give an estimate of the total value of all the things you want to insure. The higher the amount, the higher the premium, but dont say less than your things are worth or you will lose out if you need to claim.

Unfortunately for some landlords the security of their tenants possessions may not be as high a priority as you would expect, so if you have any worries about the security of your rented property then be sure to discuss this with your landlord. Rented properties can be popular with burglars who know that shared flats and houses are likely to have several laptops, mp3 players and other valuable items, and if you have Windows that do not have locks or no burglar alarm then you may find your house is an easy target for burglars.

When you first move into a rented property ask the landlord about changing the locks. If the locks have not been changed, previous tenants may still have copies of the keys to your home and could use them to steal your things.

Also ask your landlord about checks to gas appliances and make sure you mention any faulty or damaged electrical appliances. Insist that smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are fitted and test them regularly.

Keep an inventory of all the things that you own that you wish to insure, with receipts if possible particularly for expensive items like computers, mp3 players and cameras. This will help to get your claim processed quickly if you should be unlucky enough to have to make one.

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