When looking for tenants insurance it can be quite a daunting prospect to have to wade through all the alternative types of cover that are available. Standard home contents cover can be purchased by tenants but it may not be as ideally suited as a tailor made tenants insurance policy.
When renting a property, it is important to remember that the landlord is responsible for taking out their own buildings insurance cover. Under no circumstances should you be taking out insurance to cover the building itself and it may be wise to make sure that your landlord has such cover in place.
Having established that this cover is there, it is now your responsibility to arrange your own home contents insurance. Many people still make the assumption that because the landlord has arranged their own buildings cover that the tenant's personal contents are fully insured. This is not the case; buildings insurance just covers the structure and fabric of a building, therefore if you lose, or have your items damaged due to fire, theft, flood or any other insured actuality, the landlord's buildings insurance will not cover them.
When arranging your own tenants insurance there are a number of things to look out for. You are eligible for most standard home contents insurance, just as any home owner would be but it may not be the best type of policy for you. Standard contents insurance may see you pay for items that you don't need to insure. For example, if you rent your home furnished then the contents provided aren't owned by you and it shouldn't be up to you to insure them. In this instance it is, once again, advisable to check with the landlord as to what type of insurances he has in place.
In recent years, many insurance providers have moved with the times and are offering bespoke tenants insurance policies. In essence these are no different to standard home contents insurance in that the same events such as fire, theft, flood, etc are insured and you can take out all the optional extras such as accidental damage cover and cover for items whilst outside of the home.
The benefit with these tenants insurance policies is that you can tailor the policy to your requirements. Only your possessions need to be insured and that's exactly what this type of insurance does. There is no need to pay extra premiums for contents or fixtures and fittings that are simply not your responsibility.
Tenants insurance cover needn't be hard to source and most comparison websites now provide the option that allows you to search for this type of policy. With many providers offering a bespoke policy for tenants it has never been easier to find the right cover for your needs.