Terms to Know - Tenant Insurance

In certain circumstances, your insurance will help to cover expenses such as moving costs, a hotel room, storage and more. For example:

• If your rental is considered unfit to live in due to an insured peril and you have to move out while the damage is being repaired, your plan will cover necessary and reasonable additional living expenses.
• If you are denied access to your rental by a civil authority because of damage to a neighbouring premises due to an insured peril, your plan will cover a necessary and reasonable increase in living expenses for up to two weeks.
• If a mass evacuation is ordered due to a sudden and accidental event within Canada or the U.S., your plan will cover any necessary and reasonable increase in living expenses to a maximum of $2,500 for the period access is prohibited, not exceeding 30 days from the date of the order of evacuation.

Provides protection against the widest range of risks and only excludes the perils specifically listed in your policy.

This is the amount you must pay out-of-pocket for each claim before your insurance policy pays.

If your claim exceeds $25,000, and the applicable deductible amount on your Certificate of Property Insurance is $1,000 or less, the deductible will not apply to your claim.

Protects you financially if you unintentionally cause bodily injury or property damage to others while inside the building in which you live or anywhere in the world. For example, this coverage protects you if:

• Your toaster oven catches fire, damaging your unit and part of your neighbour's unit. (Your neighbour's and landlord's insurance companies may cover these damages but will still come to you to seek reimbursement.)
• Your housekeeper slips on a spill on your kitchen floor and injures her back.
• You throw a baseball on the beach while on vacation in Florida and you accidentally knock out a bystander's tooth.

Your liability coverage helps protect you whether someone sues you or not:

• Your policy will pay for property damage or personal injury you unintentionally cause even if you are not legally liable.
• If someone does sue you due to injury or property damage covered by your policy, the costs associated with your defence are covered by your policy.

Tip: It’s a good idea to purchase as much liability coverage as you can afford—we recommend at least $1 million in coverage and offer up to $2 million in coverage.

Your policy provides coverage for personal property belonging to others while it is in your possession or belonging to a residence employee travelling for or with you (if the property has no other insurance coverage.) However, property of tenants or boarders who are not related to you is excluded.

Includes items such as furniture, televisions, computers, washer/dryer, clothes, jewellery, etc. inside your rental or on your premises.

You should have enough Contents Coverage to repurchase everything you currently have as personal belongings inside your rental. If you're not sure, itemize all of your personal belongings, room by room. Apply an approximate amount to each item and then total these amounts.

Tip: Update your personal belongings inventory at least once a year. Photograph or videotape all your belongings and keep a record of serial numbers and receipts where applicable in a secure location (such as a safety deposit box.) If you ever make a claim, your visual record of the missing or damaged items will make the process much easier.

Your landlord’s property insurance doesn’t cover your personal belongings. Tenant insurance, on the other hand, provides coverage for your personal belongings inside your rental.

Your policy provides coverage for theft, attempted theft or burglary of personal property that is inside or on any automobile that is parked on or away from your premises.

Your policy provides coverage for personal property while it is temporarily away from your premises, anywhere in the world. However, personal property normally kept at any other location you own or rent is not insured. If you wish, we will include uninsured personal property belonging to others while it is in your possession or belonging to a residence employee travelling for or with you.

Personal property stored in a secured storage facility is insured for 30 days only, from the date the property was first stored. We will continue coverage beyond that period for theft only, subject to the applicable policy coverages, conditions, limits and exclusions.

Subject to the exclusions and conditions in your policy, Specified Perils mean:

• Fire
• Lightning
• Explosion
• Smoke due to a sudden, unusual and faulty operation of any heating or cooking unit in or on the premises
• A falling object which strikes the exterior of the building
• Impact by aircraft, watercraft or land vehicle
• Riot
• Vandalism or malicious acts, not including loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft
• Water damage, meaning damage caused by:
  • the sudden and accidental escape of water from a watermain
  • the sudden and accidental escape of water or steam from within a plumbing, heating, sprinkler, air conditioning system or domestic water container, which is located inside your dwelling
  • the sudden and accidental escape of water from a domestic water container located outside your dwelling (such damage is not covered when the escape of water is caused by freezing)
  • water which enters your dwelling through an opening which has been created suddenly and accidentally by a peril not otherwise excluded
  • the backing up or escape of water from an eaves trough or down spout, or by ice damming, provided the water has not entered through a basement or foundation wall
• Windstorm or hail, including loss or damage caused by weight of ice, snow, or sleet. This peril does not include loss or damage to your personal property within a building, caused by windstorm, hail or coincidental rain damage unless the storm first creates an opening in the building.
• Transportation, meaning loss or damage to your personal property caused by collision, upset, overturn, derailment, stranding or sinking of any motorized vehicle or attached trailer in which the insured property is being carried. This would also apply to any conveyance of a common carrier, but does not include loss or damage to property in a vacation or home trailer which you own. Watercraft, their furnishings, equipment or motors are also not covered.

We will pay reasonable medical expenses (surgical, dental, hospital, nursing, ambulance service and funeral expenses) incurred within one year of the date of the accident, if you unintentionally injure another person or if they are accidentally injured on your premises, even though you are not legally liable.

The amount of insurance shown on your Certificate of Property Insurance is the maximum amount we will pay for each person in respect of one accident or occurrence.

Please see your policy for all terms, conditions, limits and exclusions.

We will pay for unintentional direct damage you cause to property even though you are not legally liable. You may also use this coverage to reimburse others for direct property damage caused intentionally by an insured person, 12 years of age or under. We will pay whichever is the lower amount of:

• What it would cost to repair or replace the property with materials of similar quality at the time of loss
• The amount of insurance shown on your Certificate of Property Insurance

Please see your policy for all terms, conditions, limits and exclusions.

Note: The information above is a summary only and does not include all terms, conditions, limits and exclusions.