Renters Insurance Questions

[XXtwindad]

Hi All,

I'm going to sign up for some long overdue renters insurance. Quick questions:

1) Who is your insurance through?
2) What's the monthly fee?
3) How much theft does it cover and is there a deductible?
4) Any other steps I need to take to insure my bikes? Mine are pretty damn secure, but I want to err on the side of caution.

Thx.

[Coffee Rider]

You should definitely advise your agent/broker that you want to ensure there's coverage for your bikes. What is covered depends on how the policy is written. The biggest thing for having renter's insurance is liability coverage.

I have USAA homeowner's insurance and before that, I had USAA renter's insurance. My experience has been mixed, but you could do worse.

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by Coffee Rider

You should definitely advise your agent/broker that you want to ensure there's coverage for your bikes. What is covered depends on how the policy is written. The biggest thing for having renter's insurance is liability coverage.

I have USAA homeowner's insurance and before that, I had USAA renter's insurance. My experience has been mixed, but you could do worse.

All good points. And ask about replacement value insurance versus residual value. Residual value on my 15 year old C50 is probably $300. Replacement value is probably $10K. And a small increase in annual cost gets you the latter...

And a clarification regarding USAA. It is a great insurance company, generally top rated...but if you don't have them already, you probably aren't eligible (you need to have served in the military, or be direct family of one who served).

[AllesWirdGut]

Having renters insurance is a great idea, generally (a lesson I learned too late), but you might consider taking out individual policies on certain high-value bikes too. I'm far from an expert, but it's worth asking about.

[BobbyJones]

I posted this a while ago. May be some help depending on where you are located.

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=172509


Quick notes:

•Off premises theft is not automatically included but minimal $$ to add.

•Off premises coverage only was good for 10% of total base policy

•specific riders for bikes is expensive. $10k of bike coverage = $700

•Much cheaper to increase base policy to where that 10% covers your bikes (and other stuff like laptops).


Since then, i've learned more about specific exclusions, like if there's a water leak, even sewer backup, you need specific coverage, and at fault scenarios (better your insurance co pay you then have them fight it out with your neighbors company).

In addition, get more than you think. Had a friend who's neighbor 3 floors up had a fire. No fire damage, but some smoke and water damage. By the time she was done adding stuff up, the $$$ for socks alone was close to $1K

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

All good points. And ask about replacement value insurance

THIS.

I have insurance through Metropolitan. When I rented an apartment, my bike was stolen while I was riding it in another town.

Since I had a replacement value clause in my policy, I only paid my deductible and insurance covered replacing my custom Bilenky.

I paid no extra premium to insure my 3 bikes. I don't recall whether the replacement value rider was an additional cost.

Take photos of your bikes and record serial numbers, to prove ownership.

[AngryScientist]

your insurance policy will cover exactly what it says in the policy language.

like any other business transaction, reading the fine print in the contract tells the tale.

the good news is the buyer of the policy can and should have input to the policy language.

i would suggest bench-marking the price by calling one of the big players like progressive, geico, liberty mutual, etc - and speaking with a sales person and explain exactly what cover you want and get a quote. then you can shop that quote around a little to see if you can do better or the bench mark quote is good.

realistically, personal insurance pricing is pretty dynamic and regional, so any advice you get here is likely out of date, and doing a little leg work (via net/phone) is going to get you the best outcome.

i dont say any of that to sound flippant, just based on experience and knowledge of the field and an honest attempt to be helpful.

[Tz779]

take pictures with your bikes or have tne receipts from purchase. one has to show proof of ownership of a stolen item.

[54ny77]

Great thread thanks for this reminder.

[doomridesout]

I have $80k in personal property coverage and $100k in liability, with a full replacement value rider for bikes. I'd have more liability if I wasn't so close to judgment-proof. I think it's $700 a year or so in Sacramento. I believe the vast majority of that cost is the bike rider.

It's not germane to bikes, but one thing to consider is: in the event someone sues you and has a meritorious claim with potentially big damages (easy to do if someone becomes permanently disabled from an injury), is the liability policy big enough that they take the policy limit in settlement and walk away? Or is it small enough that the incentive is to take the policy limit and then sit you down for a judgment debtor's exam and start taking chunks of your paycheck, your assets, etc?

Do you have a dog? Make sure there's no dog bite exclusion.

When you're thinking about what kind of liability exposure you're insuring against, think of the maximum exposure and work backwards. If your dog is a sweetheart who would sleep through the Battle of the Bulge, you should still be operating on the assumption that he'll nip the little toe of the burglar breaking in, and the burglar will sue you.

Basically, California is litigious and the policy is there so whatever suit someone brings against you doesn't touch you personally. The policy is there to pay the cost of a defense, in addition to paying a settlement or judgment.

[sjbraun]

The reported costs for bike riders are crazy. I have a rider for musical instruments valued at $50k. It costs me $213 per year.

[zap]

Bicycles were included in my Erie HO (maybe renters too) policies.

I found out in '17 that bicycles were no longer covered under standard HO insurance policies. I didn't read an insert which mentioned that bicycles were no longer covered back in '15.

So, like other expensive items, you need to list bicycles separately and pay accordingly. We decided to not cover our bicycles as it would have cost over US$1K/yr to cover all our bicycles...and most importantly, never filed a claim since I started racing way back when.

[redir]

My wife took care of all that billing stuff when we rented so I don't know but but I will say one thing, our insurance had 'replacement cost' clause in it. So when my 10 year old MTB was stolen off my front porch becasue I was a dummy and left it there when we went on vacation they insured it for the cost of replacing it in today's dollars. I would definitely recommend having that.

[pdonk]

I looked into adding my bikes to our insurance as specifically referenced items, the cost was prohibitive. I was looking at around 5% of declared replacement value per bike.

Without the specific rider I am limited to $1000 per bike for theft as a standard clause in my insurance. They are considered regular chattels in terms of fire replacement and fall into the overall payment if we have a total loss of our house.

This is in a Canadian context.

[zap]

The other thing....two HO insurance claims and you might get dropped. Your next policy with another firm will be expensive.

So what we did was raise our HO deductable to $2,500. Might raise the deductible further come renewal time. Pocket the savings.