ohiolandlord
03-06-2006, 09:37 PM
I. What is Renters Insurance?
Renters Insurance is an insurance policy that insures the value of your possessions. Just as homeowners insure their homes against various perils, so may renters insure their belongings against loss.
II. Why Get Renters Insurance?
It's dirt cheap and it can save your a-s. Often, renters insurance can be obtained for as little as $8.00 a month but can provide $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 in insurance coverage.
A. Renters Insurance Protects against Loss from Criminal Activity
If your apartment is in a bad area and your landlord's idea of security is a pushbutton lock on your door, renters insurance is a great idea prior to the purchase of any expensive item like a flat screen tv or a new computer. If your apartment gets burglarized, the police will come by and make a nice report, but you don't have much hope of ever getting your stuff back. Even if they catch the burglar, your stuff will be long gone and filing a lawsuit against a deadbeat crook in jail is usually pointless.
You should have gotten renters insurance. If you did, and submitted the police report and your receipts to the claims adjuster, you would be receiving a nice check to make up for your losses.
B. Renters Insurance Protects against Failure of your Landlord to Make Repairs
If the upstairs tenant is complaining about his kitchen sink leaking and the landlord does nothing about it, your first indication of trouble will likely be when your living room ceiling falls in and destroys your stuff. You can demand that your landlord pay for the damages, but if he doesn't, what are you going to do? You can sue him, but that will entail hiring a lawyer and waiting about 8 months to a year before your case goes to trial. To top it off, the lawyer will likely get one third of what you recover.
You should have had renters insurance. If you had, you could submit your claim and receipts to your insurance adjuster and you would be getting a check for the value of your items right around the time that the landlord is getting sued by your insurance company for the damages.
C. Renters Insurance and Damage You Do By Accident
We all have our slow moments. Perhaps you will be cooking something and are distracted by a phone call. Your nose reminds you much too late that your stove top is ablaze. When you finally put out the fire, the wall and the ceiling are charred. Estimates to repair the damage range from $10,000.00 and $15,000.00.
The people who live upstairs from you are pissed because all of their furniture and clothing smell like smoke and bacon, and they are sending you a bill for upholstery steam cleaning and dry cleaning of $950.00.
You should have had renters insurance. Your insurance company would have paid out on the claim and your landlord would never know there was damage.
D. Renters Insurance and Damage Other Tenants Do.
You come home from work and your apartment building has burned down. Arson investigators conclude that the fire started in the apartment below yours because the tenant dropped his cigarette into a bin full of newspapers and junk mail when he fell asleep watching day time soaps. He doesn't have a job so suing him for the loss of your possessions is pointless.
You should have had renters insurance. You would have had a check from your insurance company right around the time you were ready to move into your new apartment, and depending upon the wording of your policy, they may even have paid your hotel bill.
III. How Do I Prove My Ownership and The Value of My Belongings?
This can be tricky unless you have taken some precautionary steps. The first step is storing your receipts in a safe place. Whenever you purchase something of value, you should photocopy the receipts. Keep the originals in a file at work and the photocopies in the trunk of your car. This way, if your place burns down, you will be able to show the claims adjuster exactly what you paid for the big ticket items around the house.
The second step is to make video tape of your apartment and the stuff in it. There are a great many things of value which you will likely not have receipts for. This can be anything from clothing to gifts from friends and relatives. Your video will establish that you did in fact own such items and it will also show what condition they were in. That way, if your claims adjuster gets saucy with you regarding whether or not you really owned 200 DVDs, you can show him the video of the stuff in its bookshelf and he's dished. Keep the video in a safe place, and periodically re shoot it.
IV. What if my renter's insurance refuses to pay out on my claim?
If you are in possession of the documentation of your belongings supplied above, your renter's insurance company would be unwise to refuse your claim. To be sure, any insurance company hates to pay out on a claim, but when you are the policy holder, the law of most states allows you to bring a 'bad faith' claim against your insurance company if they refuse a claim for a groundless reason. If you prevail upon your bad faith claim against your insurance company, you would be eligible to receive your actual damages, attorneys fees, and punitive damages in an amount which the court deems proper.
V. What damages am I entitled to when I make my claim?
An insurance company will only pay you for your actual damages. This means that you will get a check representing the value of the items at the time the loss occurred. This is different from 'replacement value' of the items. An example will show us the difference.
You purchased a gallon of milk three days ago. Since that time, you have consumed one half of it. A fire occurs and all of your possessions are lost, including your gallon of milk. When it comes to totaling up your losses, the insurance company is not going to give you a new gallon of milk. Rather they will give you enough money to buy a half gallon to replace the value of the item actually lost.
We all realize that no one is going to bother about a half gallon, or even a full gallon of milk. But the example is useful when it comes to looking at the value of a couch you purchased three years ago. The insurance company is going to look into its books and find out the life expectancy of the couch you lost. If the couch is expected to last ten years, and you paid $1000.00 for it, and it was three years old at the time you lost it in the fire, you are going to get only $700.00 for it.
A. What about the sentimental value of my lost items?
Unfortunately, you will not be compensated for sentimental value of items. So if the person who broke into your apartment walked off with, among other things, a box containing photo albums of you with your family and with your high school friends, those these memories are priceless to you, your insurance company will not be responsible for compensating you for their loss. You will only receive the physical value of the lost items, which is likely to be a few bucks for the photo albums themselves and for the film and developing costs.
The same is true of pets lost in a fire. That mixed breed mutt that you loved so much isn't worth anything on the open market, thus you won't get anything for him. The story might be different if you can show that you owned a purebred animal and what people on the open market are paying for such animals.
This may seem unfair at first blush, but remember that the law requires that the Plaintiff be able to prove rather than speculate upon his damages. Let's imagine for a moment that the system was different and that sentimental value could be calculated in losses. Do you really want to drive around and take the chance of running into someone in a state where some yokel can claim that his 1990 Toyota Corrolla worth $800.00 is actually worth $100,000.00 because he inherited it from his dad and he took his first date to the prom in that car?
VI. Insurance Fraud. Don't get too clever.
It's tempting to a lot of people to tell the insurance company that you also had $45,000.00 in cash that went up in smoke in the fire. Give it a rest. You are just going to get yourself in trouble when it becomes obvious that you can't substantiate the claim. The first thing the insurance company is going to ask you is where you got this money. If you can manage a convincing explanation (doubtful), then they are going to ask you why you didn't have it in the bank where it should be. They are going to ask you if you reported the making of this money on your most recent tax return form. Then they are going to ask how it is that you have never had more than $3,000.00 in your bank account in your entire adult life, but that you had $45,000.00 under your mattress.
Another group of people are going to start asking you questions about the meony after that. That group of people wears uniforms and they are better known as the police. They are going to suspect that you are either involved in drugs or that you are involved in insurance fraud, both of which are a crime.
If you are going to make a claim for missing cash, you need to have rock solid proof that you had the cash in that amount, and that you obtained it legally. People try this con all the time and they get caught all the time. The bottom line is, don't get too clever. It will only come to grief.
Renters Insurance is an insurance policy that insures the value of your possessions. Just as homeowners insure their homes against various perils, so may renters insure their belongings against loss.
II. Why Get Renters Insurance?
It's dirt cheap and it can save your a-s. Often, renters insurance can be obtained for as little as $8.00 a month but can provide $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 in insurance coverage.
A. Renters Insurance Protects against Loss from Criminal Activity
If your apartment is in a bad area and your landlord's idea of security is a pushbutton lock on your door, renters insurance is a great idea prior to the purchase of any expensive item like a flat screen tv or a new computer. If your apartment gets burglarized, the police will come by and make a nice report, but you don't have much hope of ever getting your stuff back. Even if they catch the burglar, your stuff will be long gone and filing a lawsuit against a deadbeat crook in jail is usually pointless.
You should have gotten renters insurance. If you did, and submitted the police report and your receipts to the claims adjuster, you would be receiving a nice check to make up for your losses.
B. Renters Insurance Protects against Failure of your Landlord to Make Repairs
If the upstairs tenant is complaining about his kitchen sink leaking and the landlord does nothing about it, your first indication of trouble will likely be when your living room ceiling falls in and destroys your stuff. You can demand that your landlord pay for the damages, but if he doesn't, what are you going to do? You can sue him, but that will entail hiring a lawyer and waiting about 8 months to a year before your case goes to trial. To top it off, the lawyer will likely get one third of what you recover.
You should have had renters insurance. If you had, you could submit your claim and receipts to your insurance adjuster and you would be getting a check for the value of your items right around the time that the landlord is getting sued by your insurance company for the damages.
C. Renters Insurance and Damage You Do By Accident
We all have our slow moments. Perhaps you will be cooking something and are distracted by a phone call. Your nose reminds you much too late that your stove top is ablaze. When you finally put out the fire, the wall and the ceiling are charred. Estimates to repair the damage range from $10,000.00 and $15,000.00.
The people who live upstairs from you are pissed because all of their furniture and clothing smell like smoke and bacon, and they are sending you a bill for upholstery steam cleaning and dry cleaning of $950.00.
You should have had renters insurance. Your insurance company would have paid out on the claim and your landlord would never know there was damage.
D. Renters Insurance and Damage Other Tenants Do.
You come home from work and your apartment building has burned down. Arson investigators conclude that the fire started in the apartment below yours because the tenant dropped his cigarette into a bin full of newspapers and junk mail when he fell asleep watching day time soaps. He doesn't have a job so suing him for the loss of your possessions is pointless.
You should have had renters insurance. You would have had a check from your insurance company right around the time you were ready to move into your new apartment, and depending upon the wording of your policy, they may even have paid your hotel bill.
III. How Do I Prove My Ownership and The Value of My Belongings?
This can be tricky unless you have taken some precautionary steps. The first step is storing your receipts in a safe place. Whenever you purchase something of value, you should photocopy the receipts. Keep the originals in a file at work and the photocopies in the trunk of your car. This way, if your place burns down, you will be able to show the claims adjuster exactly what you paid for the big ticket items around the house.
The second step is to make video tape of your apartment and the stuff in it. There are a great many things of value which you will likely not have receipts for. This can be anything from clothing to gifts from friends and relatives. Your video will establish that you did in fact own such items and it will also show what condition they were in. That way, if your claims adjuster gets saucy with you regarding whether or not you really owned 200 DVDs, you can show him the video of the stuff in its bookshelf and he's dished. Keep the video in a safe place, and periodically re shoot it.
IV. What if my renter's insurance refuses to pay out on my claim?
If you are in possession of the documentation of your belongings supplied above, your renter's insurance company would be unwise to refuse your claim. To be sure, any insurance company hates to pay out on a claim, but when you are the policy holder, the law of most states allows you to bring a 'bad faith' claim against your insurance company if they refuse a claim for a groundless reason. If you prevail upon your bad faith claim against your insurance company, you would be eligible to receive your actual damages, attorneys fees, and punitive damages in an amount which the court deems proper.
V. What damages am I entitled to when I make my claim?
An insurance company will only pay you for your actual damages. This means that you will get a check representing the value of the items at the time the loss occurred. This is different from 'replacement value' of the items. An example will show us the difference.
You purchased a gallon of milk three days ago. Since that time, you have consumed one half of it. A fire occurs and all of your possessions are lost, including your gallon of milk. When it comes to totaling up your losses, the insurance company is not going to give you a new gallon of milk. Rather they will give you enough money to buy a half gallon to replace the value of the item actually lost.
We all realize that no one is going to bother about a half gallon, or even a full gallon of milk. But the example is useful when it comes to looking at the value of a couch you purchased three years ago. The insurance company is going to look into its books and find out the life expectancy of the couch you lost. If the couch is expected to last ten years, and you paid $1000.00 for it, and it was three years old at the time you lost it in the fire, you are going to get only $700.00 for it.
A. What about the sentimental value of my lost items?
Unfortunately, you will not be compensated for sentimental value of items. So if the person who broke into your apartment walked off with, among other things, a box containing photo albums of you with your family and with your high school friends, those these memories are priceless to you, your insurance company will not be responsible for compensating you for their loss. You will only receive the physical value of the lost items, which is likely to be a few bucks for the photo albums themselves and for the film and developing costs.
The same is true of pets lost in a fire. That mixed breed mutt that you loved so much isn't worth anything on the open market, thus you won't get anything for him. The story might be different if you can show that you owned a purebred animal and what people on the open market are paying for such animals.
This may seem unfair at first blush, but remember that the law requires that the Plaintiff be able to prove rather than speculate upon his damages. Let's imagine for a moment that the system was different and that sentimental value could be calculated in losses. Do you really want to drive around and take the chance of running into someone in a state where some yokel can claim that his 1990 Toyota Corrolla worth $800.00 is actually worth $100,000.00 because he inherited it from his dad and he took his first date to the prom in that car?
VI. Insurance Fraud. Don't get too clever.
It's tempting to a lot of people to tell the insurance company that you also had $45,000.00 in cash that went up in smoke in the fire. Give it a rest. You are just going to get yourself in trouble when it becomes obvious that you can't substantiate the claim. The first thing the insurance company is going to ask you is where you got this money. If you can manage a convincing explanation (doubtful), then they are going to ask you why you didn't have it in the bank where it should be. They are going to ask you if you reported the making of this money on your most recent tax return form. Then they are going to ask how it is that you have never had more than $3,000.00 in your bank account in your entire adult life, but that you had $45,000.00 under your mattress.
Another group of people are going to start asking you questions about the meony after that. That group of people wears uniforms and they are better known as the police. They are going to suspect that you are either involved in drugs or that you are involved in insurance fraud, both of which are a crime.
If you are going to make a claim for missing cash, you need to have rock solid proof that you had the cash in that amount, and that you obtained it legally. People try this con all the time and they get caught all the time. The bottom line is, don't get too clever. It will only come to grief.