Why Home Contents Insurance Is Important

Imagine for a moment that you have to replace everything in your home. Look at every pieces of furniture, every article of clothing, every pair of shoes, every plate, cup, chair, picture frame, and every electronic, computer accessory, or gadget you own. Starting from complete scratch is overwhelming. Without home contents insurance, this may become reality.

Why Home Contents Insurance Is Important

In order to insure just the contents in your home, and not the structure itself, the best option is home contents insurance. This policy covers the belongings in your home or apartment, but does not cover the building. Home contents insurance is the same policy also known as renters insurance or HO-4 insurance. This shouldn't be confused by the other types of home and contents insurance, also known as homeowners insurance, which provides structural and personal possession protection.

With renter’s or home content only insurance, the building or property owners already provide building insurance, so as a tenant, you’re only responsibility is protecting your possessions against fire, wind, rain, etc.

Unfortunately, for renter’s who overlook renters, or home contents insurance, they are often shocked to find out that if their apartment burns down, and everything they own is gone, their landlord has absolutely no responsibility to them.

Each renter or tenant must determine an adequate level of coverage. This must be equivalent to what it would cost to replace everything in your apartment. In order to decide on the level of coverage you need, make an inventory of your belongings.

Be as detailed as possible, and provide an estimated replacement value for everything from furniture to electrical goods, even small items like décor, dishes, towels, etc. It is important to think about everything, even if it may seem inexpensive. Even small items can be expensive to replace all at once.

There are two main types of home content policies, Actual Cash Value coverage, or Reimbursement Coverage. Actual Cash Value home contents coverage which will only reimburse you for the market value of your goods.

This means that if you have a computer that is several years old, you may only get a few hundred dollars to replace it with a new one. Reimbursement coverage provides you the cost it will take to replace your items. So if you have a computer, you will get the money it will take to purchase a comparable computer.

Even if you don’t think anything you own is valuable, it is important to carry basic home content insurance to cover essential items like clothing, household goods, and kitchen basics. Evaluate your needs with a local insurance agent to ensure you’re adequately covered.

By Matt Reynolds - Google+

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