Insurance is something that gives relief or satisfaction to a person that if anything goes wrong, still there’ll be hope to rectify it. Insurance is defined as where a company guarantee to provide compensation for some loss that occurred in return for payment for a certain time. There are different types of insurance in the market. Such as life insurance, car insurance, renter’s insurance and, homeowners insurance, etc., while life and car or any other insurance are easy to understand with their name only, but insurance like renters and homeowners are tedious to understand as both these are related to home insurance.
Renter’s Insurance vs Homeowners
The main difference between Renters’ Insurance and Homeowners is that Renters’ Insurance is for the tenant, which does not cover any dwelling charges, whereas Homeowners Insurance is for the owner of the house and it covers dwelling charges as well. They are also different in terms of affordability.
Renters Insurance is the type of insurance taken by the person who does not own the house or property but only lives there as a tenant. It is not very costly and amount from $150 to $180 in US Dollar or a year. It is advised to have renters insurance if the tenants have some valuable and expensive assets.
Homeowner Insurance is the type of insurance taken by the owner of the home for the protection of the property and assets (covers the private property). It is also called home insurance. It is much expensive, and not everyone can afford this. It covers the interior as well as the exterior of the property.
Comparison Table Between Renter’s Insurance and Homeowners
| Parameters of Comparison | Renter’s Insurance | Homeowners |
| Meaning | Insurance for renters to insure their belongings and liability. | Insurance for owners for exterior as well as interior property. |
| Covers | Personal liability, assets damage, and ALE. | Dwelling charges, personal liability, assets damage, and ALE. |
| Dwelling Coverage | No such coverage | Includes dwelling coverage except for loss caused by earthquake and floods |
| Cost | It is cheaper | It is comparatively very expensive. |
| Owner of the home | Insurance is not for the owners but renters, | Insurance is for homeowners. |
What is Renter’s Insurance?
Renters’ Insurance is not very famous as everyone wants to have their own house one day therefore not many consider it important to ensure their rented home. But it does have its advantages. Renters insurance covers the following:
- Personal Property damage: it will cover the loss you bear if any personal property is damaged by external forces such as fire, wind, or theft.
- Personal Liability: it also covers the expenses of any injury that happened inside the house.
- Additional Living Expenses: it also covers any additional living expenses if any loss is preventing you from living.
- Medical Payments: also help in paying any medical expenses of someone injured inside the property.
Other additional things that renters insurance covers can be building additions and alterations and credit card coverage. Renters Insurance is cheaper and easily affordable. It is important to know the value of all the assets you own to make sure if there is a need for insurance or not, and if there is, it will further help in ensuring that the policy is covering the full value.
And sometimes it is suggested that renters’ insurance is only important if the person living is planning to live there for a long term. Otherwise, if he/she is planning to buy a house of their own, then homeowners insurance would be a greater choice.
What is Homeowners?
It is insurance where private property is insured. It covers the following:
- Structure of the home: it covers the structure of the home if any damage is done due to unintentional reasons, which can be fire, hurricane, or any other disaster. Most of the time, the policy also covers the garage or tools shed, but it does not cover the loss caused by flood, earthquake, or normal wear and tear.
- Personal belongings: it covers the value of all the personal belongings that can be furniture, clothes, or any expensive showpiece. They also cover jewelry and important art pieces.
- Liability Protection: it covers the expenses of medicine and any bodily harm to any member inside the property.
- ALE (Additional Living Expenses: it includes all the additional expenses you have to bear in case of home’s loss.
- While buying renters’ insurance, a person has to think about the inside belongings and their value, while in the case of homeowners insurance, exterior, as well as the interior value of a property, has to be taken into consideration.
Home is the safest place to be, and to make sure this remains safe, it is important to take care of the future losses that can take place and cannot be controlled. As in renters insurance, before choosing any policy, it is important to know the value of the place and the belongings to make sure it (the policy) covers the monetary value of any loss that can take place in the future.
Main Differences Between Renter’s Insurance and Homeowners
- Renters Insurance is when a person living as a tenant decides to insure their belongings from any future loss, and Homeowners insurance is when a person wants to ensure their home and belongings from any future loss.
- Renters Insurance does not include the dwelling charges of the home, which is included in the homeowner’s insurance; therefore, any loss that happens to the building/home will not be claimed by the insurance company.
- Renters’ Insurance is very expensive when compared to Homeowners’ insurance as it covers more property.
- The owner of the home cannot claim any loss in the case of renters’ insurance as only renters can have the compensation, whereas in homeowner’s insurance owner of the home gets the compensation.
- Homeowners insurance does not include the loss caused due to earthquake or flood or any normal harms to the building but except this is covers every loss, whereas renters insurance does not include any loss caused to the building.
Conclusion
There are several advantages of insurance. It helps in compensation if there is some accident happens that destroys the insured thing. Sometimes it is beyond repair, but mostly it helps in regaining the thing. Insurance is not done for profit but only to compensate for the losses.
And home is the most important thing that should be protected at any cost as lives of humans are affected and relied on it, homeowners and renters insurance is one of the most important types of insurances. It provides a sense of relief that if something by chance happens, everything will be taken care of.
References
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780122148507500279
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/259916
- https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA11669867&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00223905&p=AONE&sw=w
- https://millersmutualgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Rental-Insurance-Benefit-Landlord-Tenant.pdf
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11151-006-6642-1
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03461238.1983.10408339