Dorm/Apartment “Keys” (Personal Property and Liability Insurance)

• When your student stays in a dorm or on-campus housing, most insurance companies extend personal property coverage from your home owners insurance policy (but only at 10% of your personal property coverage).  This means that if you have $100,000 worth of Personal Property coverage on your Home Owners (or your Renters Insurance) policy, then you have a total of $10,000 in coverage (minus the out of pocket deductible) for things such as a laptop, a Mac, a printer, a tablet, a flat screen TV, jewelry, a musical instrument, a phone, or sports equipment.
  • Personal liability coverage is also extended from your home owners insurance policy when your student stays in a dorm/on-campus housing.
  • If your student lives in a dorm on on-campus and you don’t feel that 10% is enough coverage, you could either purchase a separate insurance policy for your student or you might want to consider “scheduling” the more expensive items.  When you “schedule” an expensive item such as a musical instrument at the appraised value, you will receive Full Replacement Cost coverage regardless of what happens to the Musical instrument.  For example, if your student spills a beverage on their $5,000 violin (or the violin mysteriously disappears), a scheduled violin will be covered; however an unscheduled violin will not be covered.
• When your student stays in an off-campus apartment (which seems to be happening more and more frequently), most insurance companies will NOT extend personal property coverage nor personal liability coverage.  If this is the case, then we recommend purchasing a separate Renters Insurance policy for your student.
• Just as was noted in with our Car Keys, this is a good time to think about purchasing an Umbrella Policy (an inexpensive insurance policy that will extend your personal liability coverage by 1 Million dollars (or more) over top of both your Auto and Home/Renters Insurance.  An Umbrella policy only costs, on average, $175/year and we would always recommend this coverage—especially when you have a child going to college. If your student resides in an off-campus apartment with very limited personal property, and doesn’t sign a lease, we still recommend purchasing a separate Renters Insurance policy to assure they have adequate liability coverage in the event of a lawsuit.
• If your student resides in an off-campus apartment and you, as a parent co-sign the lease, we recommend making sure that all parties co-signing the lease, are added as “Named Insured” on the Renters Insurance Policy.
• If your student is only going to school on a part time basis and live on campus, we recommend discussing this with one of our independent insurance agents.  Some insurance companies won’t extend personal property coverage or personal liability coverage from a home owners insurance policy for part time students.
• If you would like your child/student to get a head start into the insurance world and prepare them for what will someday be their responsibility, you could consider having them research these insurance options themselves.  If you decide to go this direction, feel free to give us a call and we can set up a meeting to review options.

 

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Enders Insurance  is an independent insurance agencies servicing South Central Pennsylvania and North Carolina.  We maintain strong business relationships with 20 different insurance companies that allows us the opportunity to research multiple options in terms of coverages and premiums for your individual insurance needs.  You aren’t like everyone else and your insurance coverage should be tailored just for you.  Mike Bagwell hails from Harrisburg, but resides in North Carolina where he and his family are happily located.