Last modified: 12/02/24
Because your landlord’s insurance generally covers your building, renters insurance is there to help cover your costs if your personal belongings — your furniture, rugs, computer, bike — are damaged in a covered event like a fire, theft or vandalism. Renters, also known as tenant, insurance can also help pay your costs if you’re sued for someone’s injury or property damage.
What does renters insurance cover?
| Coverage | What’s covered | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Personal property |
What’s covered | Damage: Repair or replacement of your belongings, including clothing, furniture, rugs, lamps, artwork, computer, electronics, kitchenware, bike. Theft: Belongings that are stolen, even if the theft takes place away from your home. |
Example | An overflowing bathtub in the unit above floods your apartment. Your landlord would have to fix the ceilings and walls, but repairing or replacing your sodden couch and ruined electronics could be paid by the personal property coverage in your renters insurance policy. |
| Coverage | Personal liability |
What’s covered | Medical costs and legal fees and settlements if you’re sued for causing injury or damage to another person. |
Example | A party guest slips on a loose throw rug, hits their head and sues you to recover the costs of their medical care and work time lost to their recovery. Liability insurance can help pay those costs. |
| Coverage | Additional living expenses |
What’s covered | Hotel or short-term rent and some other costs if you have to move out for repairs because of a covered event or if your unit is uninhabitable. |
Example | A fire rips through your unit, and you have to move to a hotel or a short-term rental while repairs are made. This coverage can help with rent that’s above what you’re already paying and also help pay some transportation and food expenses like restaurant meals if you’re in a place with no kitchen. |
| Coverage | Medical bills |
What’s covered | Medical care up to your chosen limit if a guest is injured and you’re at fault. |
Example | A friend who came over for dinner suffers third-degree burns when built up grease in the stove hood catches fire. This coverage could help pay the costs of their trip to the emergency room. |
What doesn’t renters insurance cover?
Flooding
Damage caused by flooding — water that comes in from the ground up, such as an overflowing river — is excluded from renters insurance. If a flood wrecks your furniture, you would need separate flood insurance to be covered.
Earthquakes
Earthquake coverage is not included under renters insurance, but separate earthquake insurance may be available.
Some kinds of valuable property
Coverage for high-value items such as antiques, art or state-of-the-art audio systems typically is limited under a renters insurance policy. But you might be able to add valuable items coverage, which is additional coverage for specific items.
Coverage over your limits
When you buy renters insurance, you can select the amount of coverage you want. That’s your limit, and it’s the highest amount your policy will pay out (after you pay your deductible). Limits apply to both personal property and liability coverage.
Example: A fire causes $10,000 in damage to your belongings but you’ve bought $5,000 in coverage, with a $500 deductible. After you pay the $500 deductible, your insurance will pay a maximum of $5,000. Paying for the rest of your loss would be up to you.
Property not owned by you
If you have a roommate, their belongings are not covered by your renters policy.
How much renters insurance do I need?
How much renters insurance you need typically depends on the value of your belongings and assets.
To calculate how much personal property coverage you want, make an inventory of everything you’ve moved into your place — furniture, cookware, computer, clothes, all the stuff in your closets and cupboards. Now, think of what it would cost to replace everything with new merchandise at current prices. This will give you a good idea of how much renters coverage you might want to have. If you have expensive items like jewelry, fine art, collectibles and computers, you might want to add special coverage.
How much personal liability coverage you may want depends on the value of your assets, including bank accounts, investments and property owned elsewhere — anything you’d want to protect if you were sued.
How to file a renters claim with Farmers
You can get a renters insurance claim started by:
- Filing online
- Calling and talking to a real person — Farmers® Claims Center 800-435-7764
- Contacting your agent
Have your policy number ready to speed up the process.
A claim representative will ask you for some basic information, including the cause of the damage or injury and when and where it happened. Later in the process, if you’re making a property claim, you’ll be asked to provide a detailed inventory of damaged or stolen belongings, including receipts proving their value.
If you’re filing by phone, a Farmers representative will take a look at your policy and give you an idea of what to expect in terms of coverage. The representative might give you tips or instructions on how to prevent further damage until repairs can be made.
A claims adjuster will review your case and make decisions about coverage of your losses. You’ll be able to check the status of your claim and manage your claim details by using the online claim management portal.
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