What is tenant insurance? If you are renting a house of an apartment, renters insurance is there to aid you resupply your belongings when a loss caused by burglary, fire, water damage and other insurable risks occurs. Insurance pays for the extra costs to help you recover from a loss. It also protects you if someone is injured or if damage is done to someone else’s property due to your negligence.
The consequences of a lack of insurance
In case of damage, if the tenant has not respected this obligation, he will be obliged to compensate the owner from his own funds with, at the end of the day, possible prosecutions before the civil and/or criminal courts. Moreover, the tenant must provide the landlord with an insurance certificate when the keys are handed over and then, on a regular basis, every year. If the tenant is not able to provide this document, he/she is exposed to the termination of the rental contract. This possibility must be included in the lease contract.
The landlord can also take out insurance on behalf of the defaulting tenant and charge the tenant each month on the amount of the charges. This insurance will then only cover the owner’s property, and not the tenant’s. It is therefore in the tenant’s best interest to take out his own contract, in order to insure his property and not to find himself deprived, whatever the type of loss.
Mandatory and optional guarantees
If the insurance obligation only concerns the damage caused to the building, other guarantees are essential such as “the recourse of neighbors and third parties” which covers the damage caused to the neighbors. Even if this guarantee is not mandatory, we can only recommend that tenants take it out. One only has to imagine the human and material consequences that can result from the spread of a fire to an entire neighbouring building to be convinced. In addition, tenant’s risk insurance does not cover your property that could be damaged.
What about landlords?
Although it may seem strange, the law does not require homeowners (as opposed to condominium owners) to carry homeowners insurance. However, the purchase of a property (house or apartment) often represents the investment of a whole life; this is why, in fact, considering the potential financial consequences of a disaster, the vast majority of owners take out comprehensive home insurance to protect their property and its contents. Or at least a non-occupying owner’s insurance. In the event of a claim, this insurance will complete the guarantees subscribed by the tenant and, if necessary, by the co-ownership.
