Compare Tenant Insurance Quotes in Mississauga

How Mississauga tenant insurance works

Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, adjacent to its bigger brother Toronto, Mississauga has been a growing and thriving metropolis. It’s the third biggest city in Ontario and the seventh largest in Canada with a population of about 717,000 people.

Many people in Mississauga rent their homes and will want to educate themselves about tenant insurance. It’s the best way to safeguard your assets and protect your belongings from things like theft and fire. It’s also a great way to protect yourself from liability issues, should someone get injured on your rental property and sue you. And if your rental property becomes unlivable, tenant insurance can help with expenses.

Is tenant insurance mandatory?

Tenant insurance in Mississauga is not legally required. The best reasons for having, however, are that it can help minimize out-of-pocket expenses should you need to replace or repair your belongings. Costs can add up, and you’ll want protection to buffer the damage it can do to your wallet. Also, some landlords require you to have tenant insurance as part of their lease requirements.

What will your Mississauga tenant insurance cover?

Tenant insurance in Mississauga will cover the following for you:

• Contents. This will cover any possessions that are damaged or stolen from your rented property or your storage locker. We recommend you take between $30,000 and $40,000 to cover items such as home furnishings or electronics.
  
  More expensive items such as fine art or jewelry might require additional coverage. For these items, you would need to add ‘endorsements’ or so-called ‘riders’ to your policy to provide extra protection.
• Liability. Sometimes accidents happen. Unfortunately, an accident that happens to someone in your home may lead to a lawsuit by the injured party. In these cases, you’ll want the liability coverage to protect you from paying damages or medical expenses. It can also protect you should an adjacent unit get damaged by something that is happening in your unit, such as water leakages or flooding.
• Additional living expenses. In cases where your rental unit becomes unlivable, say after a fire or a flood, you may sometimes need to relocate (hopefully temporarily). If this happens, tenant insurance can cover additional living expenses like relocation, transportation and even food. Keep in mind that your policy will not pay for expenses you were already responsible for, such as your regular groceries.

What won’t your Mississauga tenant insurance cover?

Most Mississauga tenant insurance policies will not cover you for subletting your apartment unit. If renters do not have their own insurance, you will likely be on the hook for any expenses they incur. This is important for Vrbo and Airbnb renters.

Mississauga tenant insurance policies cover only those who are named on the policy. If you have a roommate who is not named on the policy, you would be responsible for any damages they incur.

Be wary of the following limitations when it comes to your tenant insurance coverage:

• Replacement cost. This will cover the full replacement cost of the item you’re claiming up to the limit of your coverage, even if the item has lost some of its value due to depreciation. Your policy will have either this coverage or ‘actual cash value’ coverage.
• Actual cash value. This will cover the current value of the item you’re claiming, meaning that if it has depreciated due to age, you will have to pay the difference when purchasing a new one. Your policy will have either this coverage or ‘replacement cost’ coverage.
• Expensive items. Mississauga tenant insurance policies will not cover more expensive items such as jewelry or fine art. For those items, you’ll need to add a rider or endorsement to your policy to cover them. A $5,000 limit is common for these types of items, so if you lose $20,000 worth of jewelry, you will have to pay $15,000 out-of-pocket to replace it.

Add-on tenant insurance in Mississauga

Finding that the standard tenant insurance coverage is not enough? You can always expand it via add-ons – for an extra cost, of course. Here’s what you can purchase:

• Protection for expensive items. While standard coverage will protect your regular items, the more expensive ones, such as jewelry or fine art, may not be covered. For that, you’d need to purchase ‘floater’ coverage, which will guarantee a payout for high-value items.
• Coverage limit increase. If you own more items than the standard coverage can pay for, you can always increase your coverage. Take inventory of all your possessions and try to estimate their value as accurately as possible. If the amount exceeds the coverage, then you’ll need a limit increase.
• Sewer back-up and flood damage. Standard tenant insurance will not pay for water damage due to sewer back-up or overland flooding. However, you can purchase this coverage separately, if you think you’re at risk.
• Identity theft. As identity theft becomes more common, you may want to cover the replacement costs of vital legal documents like your passport.