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Tenants and renters Contents Insurance

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  • Includes bicycles, laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
  • Tenant building liability included.
  • Underwritten by AXA Insurance.
  • Average quote time is only 10 minutes.
Emma Myrie

Written by

Emma Myrie

Insurance Underwriting Expert

Libby Goodsearles

Reviewed by

Libby Goodsearles

Head of Marketing

Less than 1 minute

Updated: 25 Jul 2024

Contents Insurance for renters

What is Tenants Insurance?

Tenant insurance (also referred to as renters insurance) is a contents insurance policy specifically designed for people who rent the home they live in. Most of us would struggle to replace our possessions if they were stolen or damaged, which is why tenant insurance is essential for protecting your belongings.

Your belongings are classed as all the items you would take with you when you move home. To take out tenant contents insurance, you need to work out how much your belongings would cost to replace as new, as a Homeprotect policy will pay out on a new for old basis, which means that if you make a claim you will receive the full value of the item at today’s prices.

Remember, your landlord has a responsibility to have buildings insurance to protect against damage to the structure of the property and its fixtures, such as kitchen units, flooring and bathroom units, but your belongings are your responsibility.

Tenants Home Insurance VS. Tenants Conents Insurance

Unlike home-owners, those who rent their property are not required to hold home insurance – in fact, the term ‘tenant home insurance’ is usually only used in reference to ‘tenant contents insurance’.

Broader home insurance policies can combine building insurance and contents insurance, however, building insurance is the responsibility of the landlord and not the tenant.

Your personal belongings, on the other hand, are your own responsibility to cover for damage, loss or theft. Tenant contents insurance can be invaluable for replacing or covering the cost of items from your home, in the case of a flood, fire or robbery. 

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What’s covered by contents insurance?

Having contents insurance means you won’t be out of pocket if you need to repair or replace your belongings after they’ve been stolen, damaged or destroyed.

What we offer

Quick fix for uncontrollable leaks

Have a home emergency, such as electricity failure, faulty locks or vermin infestation? With the 24/7 Home Emergency cover, which we provide as standard, you can typically get an engineer at your home within four hours. And if you’re worried about an uncontrollable leak in your home, we aim to have an emergency plumber to you within two hours.

Extreme weather conditions may extend response time. Policy terms and claim limits apply.

New for old

Where we replace an item, we will do our best to meet the original specification on a ‘new for old’ basis. If we can’t find an exact replacement, we’ll offer you a suitable alternative, or a full cash settlement.

Legal advice

We provide Legal Protection cover as standard, giving you access to telephone legal advice on any personal legal issue, under the laws of the UK, any European Union country, the Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Switzerland and Norway.

What isn’t included?

Lost items.

Items stolen from unoccupied vehicles.

Damage caused by pets.

The cost of repairing or replacing items following a mechanical or electrical fault.

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Contents Insurance Cover Levels

Our contents insurance is designed to protect your belongings against insured events such as fire, storm, flood, escape of water, theft, malicious damage, subsidence, landslip or heave.

Contents cover

Covering the value of the possessions you could take with you when moving home, such as furniture, clothing, valuables, appliances, fittings, entertainment equipment, gadgets and bikes, following an insured loss. Cover provided on a new for old basis. 

from £25,000

Alternative accommodation

Covers the cost of alternative accommodation for you and your pets, together with reasonable expenses (e.g. travel, food, laundry) if you can’t live in your home (or where you’ve been advised to evacuate) due to an insured loss. 

up to £10,000

Home emergency

Covers sudden, unexpected emergencies, such as uncontrollable water leaks, that require immediate corrective action to prevent or limit damage to your home, or make your home secure. Two levels of cover are available, for different types of insured loss. 

up to £500

Family legal protection

Covers legal costs following an insured loss. There must be reasonable prospects of winning and the incident must have occurred during the policy term. Two levels of cover are available, for different types of insured loss. 

up to £25,000

Liability cover

Covers damages and claimants’ costs and expenses for your legal liability in the event of accidental death, injury or illness to a third party, or damage to property belonging to a third party. 

up to £5 million

Personal possessions

Covers items likely to be worn, carried or used by you away from your home (e.g. bags, clothes and sports equipment) in the event of physical damage or theft. Cover provided anywhere in the world. 

Optional

Gadgets, bikes and valuables away from the home

Cover for electronic gadgets (e.g. mobile phones, laptops, tablets etc), bikes (including electrically assisted bikes), valuables (e.g. watches and jewellery), equipment (e.g. hearing aids) and other expensive or high risk items that you take out of your home. 

Optional

Accidental damage

Covers sudden, unexpected and unforeseen events around the house (e.g. spillages or breakages) that result in physical damage and which was caused by you, your guests, a third party or wild animals. Two levels of cover are available

Optional

New Customer?

If you’re deciding on whether to buy home insurance with us, you can use our latest policy booklets as a guide.

Existing Customer?

Your latest policy documents are available to view and download.

Your Questions Answered

Visit every room in your home (including the attic, shed and cupboards under the stairs!) And list all your belongings including curtains, kitchen equipment, luggage etc. Research how much it would cost to replace each item as new and then add up the full amount you’d need to replace everything. 

We normally cover the amount you specify, however if you enter a very low amount your policy may include more than this, if this is the case you will be made aware of this before purchasing.

Although you should check the specific terms of your tenancy agreement, common practice is that landlords only take out buildings insurance for properties they let out and tenants are responsible for buying insurance cover for their belongings. This arrangement makes practical sense as you can ensure that the level of content cover you get is appropriate for the things you own including any high risk items, bikes and electronic gadgets.

In most cases, if you make sure the value of these items are included in the value of contents to be insured. Please note that there are some items that we can’t insure such as boats and water skis, please refer to the policy booklet for full details.

Although it’s not essential to have contents insurance when you’re renting your home, having suitable cover in place gives you peace of mind should the unexpected happen – see our policy booklet for details of our cover.

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