Renter’s insurance is a benefit to any person who has valuable property or visitors in their home: college students are certainly no exception. These days the most expensive items are the most easy to pocket, litigation is an avenue to quick cash for even the most trivial personal injuries, and dangers presented by fire, flood, and natural disasters remain as real a threat as ever. For the college student, especially those just starting out on their own, renter’s insurance may seem a trivial waste of money for an already tight budget, but it is absolutely essential for protecting what assets they do have.
In a single, standard-sized, school backpack a student can comfortably carry a value much greater than their 1985 VW along with their textbooks and note-taking material for the next class. Between the ultra-thin laptop, mp3 player, digital and video cameras, and eBook reading device there could be over $6,000 of gadgets in that backpack. Whether someone steals that backpack or pockets the super-small items while visiting the backpack’s owner, or the VW spontaneously combusts and destroys the backpack, a lot of money can be lost in an instant.
In a four-bedroom party house, the storage space for high-value items is severely increased. The flat screen TV, game systems, home theater systems, PC, stereos, and waterbed can easily triple the cost of the aforementioned backpack. These items, too, can be suddenly lost to thieves and various disasters, like the apartment fire the neighbor caused using the hair dryer to dry a wet spot on his jeans. Hopefully the costs will be recovered from the neighbors own liability insurance, but that is very unlikely. The student also cannot rely on Landlord’s insurance: such insurance will only pay for damages specifically caused by structural problems.
On top of the risk of loss of high-value items in the party house is the risk of litigation for accidents which occur there. America’s colleges are home to some of the most skillful debaters. Just because the fellow student made a conscious decision to drink doesn’t mean he can’t sue his comrade. All he need do is prove that the broken leg he suffered from hitting the ground from the second story is due to negligence on the part of the host to properly install restraints to keep him from climbing out of the window and falling down in the process. Furthermore, the liability of such an accident may be passed to the student’s parents if the student remains a dependent of their parents
So does a college student benefit from purchasing a renter’s insurance plan? Unequivocally yes. Renter’s insurance does not prevent young adults from doing silly things, nor does it prevent destructive forces of nature. Renter’s insurance can, however, prevent the renter from having to recoup the costs of his missing items and his buddy’s medical bills out of pocket when these things do occur. Related to other insurance policies, renter’s insurance is relatively inexpensive, but worth every dime.