Protecting yourself

MOSES LAKE — Someday you’d like to own a house, but for the time being, you’re renting a place. It’s not permanent, but it’s home. Meanwhile, you have some pretty nice stuff there, and you can’t really afford to replace it if there’s a fire, flood or burglary. That’s where renters insurance becomes important. Unfortunately, too many people don’t think of it until it’s too late.

“We offer it to most of our customers that come in, but I would say it's probably a small percentage that actually buy it,” said Gary Morgan, of Morgan Insurance in Moses Lake.

This may be because many renters think of insurance as the property owner’s problem. Not so, Morgan said. Your landlord has insurance on the house or apartment building, but that only covers his property - repairs to the unit itself. With your belongings, you’re on your own.

“The main part of the policy is the contents coverage,” Morgan said. “So we cover the furniture, the contents of the house, whatever that is. And we can schedule fine arts, silverware, guns, other collections, antiques can be scheduled just like any homeowner's policy.”

By “scheduling,” Morgan explained, he meant that for special items like family heirlooms or rare collectibles, things you can’t just walk into a store and replace, a separate form is used to determine the items’ cash values. For most people, that’s not a huge concern. If your stereo is stolen or your couch catches fire, you can simply buy a new one with the insurance money, but for family heirlooms, having them covered is important.

Renters' insurance extends beyond the home in some ways, as well.

“Oftentimes 10% of the coverage amount at home will apply to travel,” Morgan said. “So if you lost your luggage on a trip, or had some kind of a theft, then we could cover your luggage during your travels. Or if you had things in a storage facility, we have provisions where we'd cover that as well.”

Some rental properties actually require a tenant to carry insurance, Morgan said, to protect them from liability in case someone slips and falls, or to protect the landlords themselves in case of a fire or other accidental damage.

“In terms of a fire, if the fire starts in the kitchen, and it was determined that they were negligible for that, a landlord could go after the tenant for that money, but their liability would protect them in that situation,” Morgan said. “So actually, the liability on a renters policy can be very important.”

Renters' insurance doesn’t have to be expensive. Washington’s average annual payment is $179, according to the insurance website Quotewizard.com, which works out to $15 a month. An insurance agent can take that average and tailor it to a specific renter’s needs.

Morgan pointed out that a policy’s price is predicated on the amount of coverage needed.

“A couple starting out in life is gonna probably be in the $25,000-$30,000. range for coverage for their contents, and that's gonna run, maybe $12 to $15 a month. It's very reasonable. Somebody who’s well established in life, with some collections or antiques, that could easily be a couple hundred thousand covering their household contents.”

The Northwest Insurance Council strongly recommends that renters make a full inventory of their possessions when moving into a new residence, so they don’t have to guess later at what they might have had.

“Having an up-to-date inventory of your possessions will not only help you get your insurance claim settled much faster, it will verify losses for your income tax return and help you purchase the right amount of insurance,” the NWIC states on its website.

It’s good to have a detailed list, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t, Morgan said.

“For general contents, you don't have to get real specific. We trust the customer and their lists. So if there is a fire, they need to bring a full list of what was lost, and then we replace that. That's a matter of trust that we put in them. We don’t require other proof, they simply bring us in the list.”

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

The Northwest Insurance Council recommends that renters keep an inventory of their belongings to make sure they don’t overlook something that they may need replaced later. Here are some tips for creating that list:

• Be sure to include the basic information that includes a description of the item, where you bought it, the serial number, purchase date and estimated value.

• Pick an easy room to start in to prevent getting overwhelmed. Start in the kitchen, for example, and focus on appliances first, then go from room to room and catalog items.

• Save receipts so you have proof of an item’s value. It’s smart to store those somewhere safe outside the home, but also taking photos with your smartphone and saving them online can save time now and later.

• Items kept in a storage facility should be included in your home inventory as well.

Always keep your home inventory up-to-date. Whenever you make a significant purchase, add it to your home inventory.

— Source: Northwest Insurance Council website, www.nwinsurance.org