Personal Property Should Be Covered With Renters Insurance

April 30, 2010

The year was 2000. My husband and I had just moved into our second apartment. The lease was signed and initialed on the dotted lines, and we were locked in for the next three years. It was a move up, or so we hoped. We decided to unpack our home office on the first night since we use our computer to connect with family and friends. We were not wireless, so we had several wires to connect, which of course meant a long evening ahead. I started a quick supper on the stove then went to see if I could help. We had just patted ourselves on the back for a job well done when suddenly the smoke alarms beeped. I ran to see if it was because of dinner cooking, but nothing was burning on the stove. Next we did a 360 around the apartment, but we still couldn't find anything. By then the alarms had quit. We chalked it up to a defect in the alarm itself and added it to our list of things to do the next day. The next day came sooner than we expected.

Around three in the morning thick, strangling smoke filled our bedroom. Luckily it woke us up in time. We did the crawl with a thin blanket over our faces out of the apartment. The firemen arrived quickly, and everyone got out safely. We stood on the curb while we watched our dream life go up in smoke.

It was a whole three days before we were allowed back in to see if anything was salvageable. The wall we had wired our computer to was pitch black, and the computer was reduced to a melted blob on a chunk of charcoal that was once our beautiful oak desk.

As happy as we were to get out alive with nothing more than some smoke in our lungs, the loss of our personal belongings, memories and clothes devastated us. My husband was sure, though, that the landlord's insurance would reimburse our loss. But still it was of little comfort in the coming days.

You can imagine his face when he read the notice from the landlord two weeks later that not only would we not receive compensation for our personal belongings, but we also had some liability because of faulty wires. The letter went on to state that we would not get any monies from the landlord's insurance whatsoever per the requirements of the lease. We were, however, free from the lease. We would need to re-lease another apartment if we so choose.

"What?" was all either of us could manage to squeak out. We went over the lease with a fine-tooth comb, and sure enough there it was: The landlord's insurance is liable for the building only. Personal property should be covered with renters insurance purchased by the individual. We had unwittingly signed our personal property away when we signed this lease. This was truly an underrated, invaluable lesson. We not only learned to read every word of a document before we sign, but we also learned how important it is to purchase renters insurance. Needless to say we moved on, but with renters insurance. Wisdom cost a pretty penny, but now along with our health insurance, we pay a premium for renter's insurance so that we have security against theft, fire, injury and water damage. It took a bit of effort to replace our personal property and we have only our family to remind us of the memories now, no photos. But on a lighter note we've gone wireless.

-Sandra from Wisconsin

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