by Elicia Flom

Created on: June 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

Why do I need renters insurance?

As a 20 year veteran renter between my college apartments and first home, I have asked this question many times. It always seemed to be an added expense when I was lucky to find two pennies buried in my second hand couch.

In college, my next door neighbor believed that living three stories above ground made her safe, until the day she woke up and discovered that her only form of transportation, her bicycle, had been stolen right off of her balcony. The following spring, the college removed several hundred bikes from the river running near the campus. My neighbor was not the only person who could have used renters insurance.

After college, our first home was a rental property and, again, the question about whether to purchase renters insurance surfaced. We went about eight months without it when a pipe burst over the winter. It was expensive having the plumber come in the winter to do the repair on the plumbing; and even more expensive in the spring when we found that the paneling and drywall around the pipe rotting away. The smell was awful as we ripped away layer after layer of drywall, paneling and wallpaper. The cost of just the materials to complete the repair, without the bill from the plumber, was over $2000. We purchased renters insurance somewhere between the first coat of primer and final coat of paint on that repaired wall. We renewed the renters insurance every year after. If we hesitated or wavered on our decision, even a little, we'd only have to go look at the wall in our bedroom closet for a reminder.

Several years later, we were so relieved when our renters insurance covered the cost of the damage from a small electrical fire. My sons had decided to decorate the house with Christmas lights designed for indoor decorating. When the fire department was putting the finishing touches on extinguishing the burning bush in our front yard, the damage from the fire combined with the water used to put out the fire was over $1500. Thank goodness we had the insurance we needed to cover the accident; otherwise, it would not have been a good Christmas holiday for our family. We were even able to plant a new bush the following spring.

Just this past week, my son's apartment complex had some kind of power problem related to a serious storm cruising through. Whether it was a lightning strike, blown transformer or some other coincidental electrical problem, his two televisions and DVD player did not work even after power was restored. He told us he actually saw sparks coming out of his DVD player. While one of the televisions was a gift, his estimated replacement cost will exceed $1100. He sure wishes he had had rentersinsurance and plans to purchase it this week.

No question about it; renters insurance certainly eliminates or reduces the number of sad endings to real life stories.

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