Tenant insurance: 3 things you need to know about filing a claim—and getting paid fast

Purchasing tenant insurance is kind of like purchasing an extra turkey for your holiday dinner. We’re glad we have it on hand in case something goes wrong with the first one, but we hope we never have to use it.

Tenant insurance is often purchased before you move in to a new place, with the intention that if anything goes wrong—say your toilet floods or a neighbour trips over your stylish shag carpet and hurts themselves—your insurance policy will cover the cost of the damage.

Many policyholders will never have to submit a claim. They can simply rest easy knowing they’re covered in the event of any what-ifs that may arise in the future.

Should something go wrong, and you do find yourself in the position to file a claim, we’ve prepared a quick guide, providing you with insider knowledge on how to best prepare to submit a tenant insurance claim.

Read your tenant insurance policy

Although many insurance policies tend to be long and filled with hard-to-understand legalese, it’s important to know exactly what you’re covered for and what you’re not. Without a clear understanding of what your policy will allow you to make a claim for, you may find yourself in a situation where your apartment is badly damaged and a hefty bill is on its way directly to you.

One way to make the claim process easier is to read the policy summary for a general understanding of what your policy entitles you to. After that, take a few minutes to go through the actual policy document online or as a PDF, if your insurance provider offers this, using the search tool to locate the information you’re going to need, for example:

• How much liability coverage is offered?
• Is damage by other people/pets covered by my policy?
• What is the contents coverage limit?
• How much money is provided to me in the event I need to sleep somewhere else as a result of damage?

Take inventory

Picture this: You’ve just moved into a new place, and your group chat is blowing up with messages asking you to send pictures. Instead of deleting these pictures when your phone’s storage gets too full, hold on to them. Taking snapshots of the items and layout of your rented space makes it easier for claims adjusters to understand exactly what has been damaged when you file a claim. Through these images, claims adjusters can see where items were laid out in your apartment, how they could have been damaged, and the quality and condition of the item that you’re looking to replace.

On that note, it’s also a good idea to keep receipts for your large-ticket items. That way, when you’re getting ready to file a claim, you have evidence that shows exactly how much you paid for said items, along with their purchase dates. The key to a speedy claim is making the job of the insurance adjuster as simple as possible. If your belongings are well documented, determining the amount of your payout will be quick and easy, allowing you to get your money sooner!

Don’t skimp on the details

Be specific. Annoyingly specific.

Say your leisurely bath runs a little too long, and you accidentally cause water damage to your apartment’s bathroom and kitchen. Don’t panic! That’s why you purchased tenant insurance in the first place.

To start, do whatever you can to prevent even more damage. This could include cleaning up the water, removing your items from the path of flood, contacting your landlord, etc. After that, take account of exactly what has happened, assess the damages, and get ready to submit your claim.

It’s important you provide your claims adjuster with every detail possible when describing the situation, that way they can get a better idea of exactly what you need to replace or repair, and they can move your claim along quickly.

As much as you may think you’re going into too much detail, claims adjusters want to get the total picture together before they can start to process your claim. It’s here that you can submit the images of your apartment, pre- and post-damage, as well as the receipts of items that need to be replaced or repaired. The more detail you provide, the less back and forth you need to go through with the adjuster, creating a faster claims process.

While we hope you won’t need to file a tenant insurance claim anytime soon, it’s important to be prepared should that situation ever arise. Duuo provides affordable, on-demand insurance for Canadian renters, and their claims process could not be easier. Check out the Duuo website to get a quote in less time than it takes to say tenant liability insurance.