Your landlord insures the building and what the landlord owns in it. What you carried through the door is yours.
The roof, the walls and the plumbing belong to the owner, and so does the policy on them. Your furniture, your clothes, your laptop and your bike are yours, and so is the bill if a fire or a burst pipe takes them. So is the cost of somewhere to sleep while the suite is repaired.
Tell us what is in your suite Read the short answer firstEverything you moved in is yours to insure.
Water reaching the suite below starts with you.
A policy pays for the weeks you cannot live there.
Does my landlord’s insurance cover my belongings?
No. The owner’s policy is written for the owner’s building and the owner’s own liability. Everything you carried through the door is yours to insure.
The building is fine, the claim is handled, and then the question arrives: who is paying for the sofa, the bed, the computer and the six weeks in a hotel? The answer is your own policy, or nobody. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says it in one line: “Tenant’s insurance covers your possessions in your apartment and while you’re away.”
Contents are the obvious part, and they are rarely the biggest number. Liability is. If a tap is left running, or a candle is left burning, the damage does not stop at your door. It runs down through the ceiling of the suite below and into the building itself. The Insurance Bureau of Canada puts the exposure this way: tenants “may be liable for any damage they cause to the building or unintentional harm caused to others who live in or visit the property”. Who can recover from whom is a legal question that turns on your tenancy agreement, and it is one for a lawyer or the Residential Tenancy Branch. The liability section of a tenant policy is the cover written to answer a claim made against you. Read what the Insurance Bureau of Canada says about tenant cover (opens in a new tab).
Four things a tenant policy is there for.
The things you own
Furniture, clothes, kitchen gear, a bike in the storage locker, the computer the work depends on. Add it up honestly once, because a suite fills slowly and the total is easy to underestimate.
The damage you cause
A hose that splits, a bath left running, a pan left on the heat. The repair to your own suite is one bill. The repair to the suites under yours, and the building, is the one that hurts.
Somewhere to live while it is fixed
A suite can be uninhabitable for months after a fire. A tenant policy generally covers the extra cost of living somewhere else in the meantime, up to a stated limit, which is rent on top of rent at short notice.
The things that leave with you
A laptop in a café, a bike locked outside the gym, a suitcase on a trip. Cover for your belongings normally travels with you, which is a part of a tenant policy worth knowing you are buying.
Three suites, three ordinary evenings. All three are illustrations, not client files.
The dishwasher upstairs
Water comes down from the suite above, from something nobody downstairs could have prevented. The building is repaired on the owner’s policy. The ruined furniture and the weeks in a hotel are not on it.
The washing machine hose
A hose splits in an empty suite and the suites below take the water. The building is put right on the owner’s policy. The neighbours and their insurers are a separate question, and that is the one the liability section of a tenant policy is written for.
The break-in
A door is forced while the suite is empty. The door is the owner’s. What was taken from inside is the tenant’s, and without a tenant policy there is nothing to claim on.
The questions renters ask before they buy.
My tenancy agreement says I have to have insurance. Is that normal?
Yes. Read your agreement, because some require it and some landlords ask to see proof before you get the keys. Where a clause names a minimum liability amount, tell us the number and we will look for a policy that meets it.
I do not own anything expensive. Is it still worth it?
The contents are not the reason to buy it. The liability is. One split hose can do more damage to a building than everything you own is worth, and that is the bill a tenant policy is really there for.
Are my things covered when they are not at home?
Normally yes. Cover for your belongings travels with you, so a laptop taken from a café or a bag lost on a trip is usually part of the same policy. Limits apply to some items, so tell us about anything unusual.
I share with roommates. One policy or one each?
One each is the clean answer. A shared policy means a shared limit and a shared claims history, and it falls apart the moment somebody moves out. Each person insuring their own things keeps it simple.
Does it cover water coming in from outside?
Ask us, because this is where policies differ most. Water from a burst pipe inside the building is treated differently from water rising outside it, and the second one is usually something you add on purpose.
Two that sit next to this on the same site: renting out a suite in your own home, and where the building stops and your unit begins. Also worth a look: who must be listed on your ICBC policy.
Not the question you had? Tell us where you rent and what is in the place, and a licensed person will answer it. Use the short contact form.
Insure what is yours before the pipe upstairs decides for you.
Tell us what is in the suite and we will look at what it would take to cover it. It takes a few minutes to set up.
Checked for technical accuracy by Amrit Sidhu of S&S Insurance Services Ltd. Last checked 28 September 2026.