The new school year is approaching and thousands of students are getting ready to move away from their parents home to attend college, university, or other educational institutions. Many of them bringing laptops, smart phones, gaming consoles, furniture, and more, to their dorm rooms or rented dwellings. Before you get settled in and begin to absorb all that knowledge, it may be a good time to review your insurance coverage, most importantly your liability exposure and your personal contents.
Contents
You may wonder as a student how much contents you really have anyways. After all you’re not working and are probably paying lots of money towards tuition, rent, and food. However, claims add up quickly and its surprising how much money it takes to replace your contents with new items.
Liability exposures
This often gets overlooked with regards to renters or tenants insurance policies, but protecting yourself from liability exposures is very important, especially living as a student. We all know that student homes can get a little crazy at times, parties start to escalate, buildings start to get damaged, and students may even get hurt. If there are injuries or property damage the student(s) renting that home or dorm room could be held financially responsible.
Multiple students in a home
Many student rentals have several people living in a home to save costs. It is important that everyone in the household has their own insurance policy or are covered elsewhere. It is also important that everyone in the household who is paying rent is listed on the lease. You don’t want to be the only person listed in the event of an injury or property damage, or you could become liable.
How do you you get coverage?
Coverage can be found in two ways, by purchasing a tenants/renters policy, or by extension from your parents contents policy.
Tenants policies can cost on average between $200 and $400 a year for roughly $20,000 in contents, plus $2 million in liability coverage. Compare this price to the cost of your textbooks, tuition, rent, food, and entertainment, and it’s quite reasonable. If you are currently paying for an auto insurance policy you can bundle the policies and receive a multi line discount, which could result in your tenants policy becoming almost free.
If your parents have a content (tenant, home, or condo) policy, their coverage might extend to students temporarily living away from home. Which can cover your contents and provide you with liability coverage. Below is a list of some of our insurance companies we carry, and there policy wordings with regards to students:
| Insurance Company | Content Coverage | Liability Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Aviva | Covered up to $10,000 | Covered |
| Chieftain | Covered, no limit | Covered |
| Economical | Covered up to 100% of coverage C (personal property) | Covered |
| Travelers | Covered up to 100% of coverage C (personal property) | Covered |
| Intact | Covered up to 100% of coverage C (personal property) | Covered |
Helpful Tips and References
3 Dorm safety tips every college student should know
Living away from home: top insurance tips parents and students need to know