Compare Tenant Insurance Quotes in Edmonton

What is tenant insurance?

Tenant insurance is home insurance for renters. While the landlord’s insurance policy covers damage to the building, it does not extend protection to a renter’s personal property. For that, a separate tenant policy is required.

Before securing tenant insurance in Edmonton, it’s helpful for a tenant to understand how home insurance products are structured.

There are two policy types available for tenants:

• Basic: Offers a basic amount of protection against perils named in the policy. It is sometimes also referred to as a ‘named perils’ policy.
  
• Comprehensive: Offers the greatest amount of protection against all perils. It is sometimes also referred to as an ‘all perils’ policy.

Regardless of whether a tenant secures a basic or comprehensive policy, a tenant policy will include coverage for the following:

• Additional Living Expenses: Also known as ALE, this covers costs if atenant is forced to leave their unit due to damage from a covered peril. For example, ALE will cover the cost of a hotel if the tenant must leave a unit while it’s being repaired after a fire.
  
• Contents protection: Compensates the tenant for the value of personal property that is damaged by a covered peril.
  
• Liability protection: Covers costs that may follow the accidental injury of someone visiting the unit. Also covers costs for accidental damage to someone else’s property.

Renters can secure even more protection by adding optional coverage. This is done by adding what in the insurance industry is known as an ‘endorsement’, ‘rider’ or ‘floater’. Some of the most common endorsements include:

• Additional contents: Extends coverage for personal property that’s damaged by a covered peril. It is an especially attractive add-on for renters who have expensive belongings such as specialty sports equipment, jewelry or fine art.
  
• Overland water: Protects the tenant’s personal property against water that has overflowed from a nearby lake, river or stream. While water damage is a covered peril in most policies, it does not include protection against flooding. As severe weather becomes more common across the country, we recommend that all policyholders add overland water protection. Without this endorsement, a renter will have to pay out-of-pocket to replace any belongings that are damaged in their unit during a flood.
  
• Sewer backup: Insurance providers distinguish different types of flooding. While overland water protects against water flowing over land, sewer backup protection deals with flooding that comes from inside a home. Specifically, it covers costs from damage from water that overflows from a drain or toilet. This type of flooding is common when a significant volume of water falls in a short amount of time and municipal sewer systems are overwhelmed.

Factors that affect your tenant insurance in Edmonton

Insurance providers consider many factors when quoting a tenant insurance premium. To assess how likely an applicant is to make a claim, they look closely at the following factors:

• Claims history: Tenants with a history of making insurance claims are likely to have a more expensive premium. Providers consider past behaviour to be an indication of future behaviour so someone with a history of making claims is deemed more likely to make one in the future. 
• Location: Location has a significant impact on a tenant insurance premium, particularly for those who live in a flood prone area and/or at a distance from a fire hydrant. 
  
• Dwelling type: The type of home a tenant lives in as well as its state of repair impacts premium. Those in newer buildings may be able to secure lower premiums.
  
• Personal property: Contents coverage can increase a premium, particularly if the tenant adds a rider for coverage of expensive items such as specialty sports equipment, jewelry or an art collection.
  
• Liability limit: While the minimum requirement for liability protection in a home insurance policy is $200,000, we recommend a minimum limit of $1 million because of how quickly legal and medical bills can add up. If a tenant has a $200,000 limit, but is successfully sued for $1 million, they’ll have to cover the $800,000 difference on their own.