Your landlord insures the building. Nothing inside your suite is theirs to insure.
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 covers the owner’s building and the owner’s own liability. It stops at the walls of your suite, and everything you carried through the door is yours to insure.
Most renters find this out on the day it matters. 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 part everyone thinks about, 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, and the owner’s insurer is entitled to come looking for whoever caused it. A tenant policy is the thing standing between you and that letter. Read what the Insurance Bureau of Canada says about tenant cover (opens in a new tab).
Four things the owner’s policy will never reach.
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. Most people are surprised, because a suite fills slowly and nobody counts as it happens.
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 covers the extra cost of living somewhere else in the meantime, 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 the part of a tenant policy people forget they are buying.
Three suites, three ordinary evenings.
The dishwasher upstairs
Nothing the tenant did, and nothing the tenant could have stopped. The building is repaired on the owner’s policy. The ruined furniture and the four weeks in a hotel are not on it.
The washing machine hose
It split while the tenant was at work. Two suites below took the water. The owner’s insurer paid to put the building right, then wrote to the tenant to ask for it back.
The break-in on a Tuesday
A door forced while everyone was out. The door is the owner’s. The laptop, the camera and the tools in the hall cupboard were the tenant’s, and were not insured.
The questions renters ask before they buy.
My tenancy agreement says I have to have insurance. Is that normal?
Yes. Many agreements in British Columbia ask for it, and some landlords ask to see proof before you get the keys. Read the clause, because a few name a minimum liability amount, and we can write the policy to match 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.
Tenant insurance is one of the cheapest policies we write and one of the few that people are genuinely glad they bought. It takes a few minutes to set up.