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Renting a property: which insurances do I take out?

Jul 28, 2020
3 min reading time

Are you renting a home or will soon be living in a rental property? Then it is important to find out where your responsibilities lie, as well as which insurances apply to you. For example, how are you insured against leakage? What if your furniture gets damaged? And who pays if a ball is shot through the window?

Building insurance

Property insurance insures your home, and all the things attached to this home, against damage from such things as fire, water or burglary. Do you rent a house? Then it is not necessary to take out building insurance. The owner and/or landlord of the house is responsible for damage to the building. He or she must therefore take out building insurance.

Contents insurance

With contents insurance, you insure the value of your contents. But what exactly falls under household contents? Basically, contents includes everything in the house that can be removed without breaking or demolition, such as furniture, computers, clothing or dishes. When you rent a home, you need to purchase your own contents insurance for the items found in your home.

Have you fitted the rental property with a new kitchen or bathroom? Then you can co-insure these fixed parts on home contents insurance (up to a maximum amount), despite the fact that fixed parts to the house normally fall under building insurance. This is called tenants' interest. This tenant's interest also includes the modifications to the house that the previous occupant made and that you took over against payment. You can specify the amount in your home insurance application.

Glass insurance

Judging from the above explanation, it could be assumed that glass is attached to the house and thus should be covered by buildings insurance. The landlord of the house is indeed liable for glass damage caused by things like storm or fire. In some cases, however, the landlord is not responsible for damage to glass, so you will have to take out your own glass insurance for this. This is the case, for example, when a ball or other object goes through the window. You can insure yourself against this by including glass coverage in your home contents insurance application.

Legal expenses and liability insurance

In addition to contents insurance and glass insurance, it is also wise as a tenant to purchase both liability insurance and legal assistance insurance . For example, liability insurance can also apply if you are held liable for damage to a rental property, while legal expenses insurance covers legal costs in any dispute with the landlord of the property.

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