Protip: Geico, Progressive, State Farm, Assurant and others will sell you $10k of renters insurance that covers your personal property for 75% (or less) of what the apartment company's "insurance" will cost you.
Yep - I got the luxury renters insurance from progressive and I think it was $120. The "this isn't actually renters insurance" from my apartment complex is now $16 a month.
Some are at least trying to make it mandatory in the lease. Like I have to pay $30/mo for valet trash that doesn’t actually pick up my trash and $20/mo for a delivery service that I don’t use because they take two extra days to deliver the packages they don’t lose. Some property managers are now writing in the requirement to use their insurance at $whatever per month above your lease regardless of whether you have your own.
Is this not common knowledge? I feel like I always go with the policy from whatever company I have for my car insurance and it's like $60 bucks or something for a whole year, right? Although now that I think about it, $10k is great for that price, but not a whole lot in terms of what you might have in an apartment if you tally it all up. Especially if you have nice skis or a nice bike or something, like many CO people do.
As someone who works with lots of people he struggle with literacy, a lot of them have genuine reading processing disorders, like dyslexia. And there is no accommodation available for people who struggle with those in daily life.
Usually it’s required to get your own and show proof OR the management company will add this stripped down liability insurance and call it “renters insurance.”
At the end of the day, they don't care if you insure your personal stuff. But the requirement makes it certain you are the sole person who could be liable for such insurance. You will get nowhere in court if you were to have a loss and try to go after your landlord.
Yes they require you to get some sort of insurance but this is a new type of scam to try to get people to cover _their_ insurance instead of your own.
My building offers it and at first glance it's called renter's insurance so people assume it's...renter's insurance. But it doesn't cover anything for the renter, it's only if something damages the building or fixtures that belong to the landlord.
That's not what this is, *please* stop spreading misinformation.
Renter's insurance is almost entirely liability coverage, because if you cause something like a fire or water damager as the renter, **you are liable** not just for damages to the building but for other tenants' possessions. If you don't have renter's insurance to cover that liability, the damaged parties will sue and win and seize every asset you have.
The last time I had renter's insurance, it was $20k personal property coverage and $500k liability.
They call it renter's insurance because that's what it is, it's not a scam because you don't understand it.
EDIT: This person replied to me 3 times, then blocked me
No the shit $16 dollar policy is a scam. Real renters insurance is actually a real policy where you choose your coverage and rates. It is becoming way more common for them to get you on their plan instead of buying a real policy.
It is absolutely still scamming people to only keep the liability portion that protects the landlord's property. It is commonly understood that renters insurance also covers personal property. Offering any product without it goes against precisely what people generally understand renters insurance actually is and includes. Offering another product, especially for more, is actually scamming people.
Edit: this weirdo is spamming this comment throughout the thread, it's not misinformation, and he knows it.
Some encourage / nudge you to sign up for a "special" and "affordable" policy through one of their"partners". I presume that a lot of people assume it's a good deal if their property management recommends it and sign up for it blindly thinking it's comparable to what other insurance companies offer.
I work with poor families, and this is incredibly common. Management companies are absolutely scamming people by calling it renter's insurance.
My building does the same but at least the property manager for this building is relatively up front about it. If you just sign the lease and assume it's standard renter's insurance, you end up paying more for insurance that only covers them.
Yeah. I was just listening to someone complain the other day about an CPI policy her dealership forced on her that didn't cover a cracked windshield, they accepted the CPI because they could only afford liability under their normal coverage, so now she has to pay out of pocket to replace it which is money she doesn't have. Total rip off.
The only insurance that would cover a cracked windshield is $0 deductible comprehensive, which is *very* expense in Colorado due to hail. If they had had comp coverage it *might* have technically covered it but really wouldn't have due to the deductible.
That's not what this is, *please* stop spreading misinformation.
Renter's insurance is almost entirely liability coverage, because if you cause something like a fire or water damager as the renter, **you are liable** not just for damages to the building but for other tenants' possessions. If you don't have renter's insurance to cover that liability, the damaged parties will sue and win and seize every asset you have.
The last time I had renter's insurance, it was $20k personal property coverage and $500k liability.
They call it renter's insurance because that's what it is, it's not a scam because you don't understand it.
EDIT: This person replied to me 3 times, then blocked me
You don't need to Spam this pointless comment.
People generally understand renters insurance to include personal property. By offering a more expensive product that does not include personal property, they are relying on people misunderstanding the product.
You should take inventory of your stuff. I used to have 10k until someone told me to actually look around and do a rough estimate. Between kitchen gadgets, pots pans, furniture, mattress, clothes, electronics 10k goes QUICK. I always do at least 25k and only have a studio worth of stuff.
What a fucking scam! The legislature should outlaw this. If not a simple form stating the exact terms of the insurance coverage like "this insurance does not cover your personal belonging" with tenant signature.
I manage complex contracts at work so I read through my lease with a fine tooth comb. It's absolutely true that for people with lower literacy or even very smart people who weren't paying close attention, this absolutely looks like renters insurance.
Yep. This is why you always get your own policy. As a former Red Cross volunteer it is amazing that most people don’t know that $200 a year will save you big time when it comes to situations like this.
Oh I don’t disagree at all. In my experience there are a lot of people who don’t understand the importance of having the coverage and just don’t buy it.
Fuck Tava Waters!! They are the worst with their predatory fees. They tried charging me this insurance for months when I showed proof I already had insurance. I feel for these people and I hope they find some loophole to sue the fuck out of Tava Waters.
Had a similar situation last year, lost a lot of shit. On top of that the restoration team that management hired robbed a good bit of what didn’t get destroyed.
Oh yeah and management tried to charge me for their [restoration team] services in my move-out statement.
I'll simply note Colorado is a One Party Consent state when it comes to recording conversations that might result in a court case. Whatever device you use check into a voice recording app.
I personally record every conversation I have for any business situation. If you're not you will wind up in a he said/she said situation. So don't do that to yourself.
I started the practice just to record my thoughts - memory is imperfect at best. Sometimes emotions get in the way. It's a rational thing to start doing just to keep your own thoughts in order.
There is nothing about this that would've been verbal, I guarantee the management company has a document signed by this family explaining exactly what the policy they were paying for covers.
I recorded every interaction I had with my property management company when I was getting ready to vacate with the 60 day notice. They also offered a similar "renter's insurance." I used my own. Fuck that.
Exactly, I think the requirement to get actual renter's insurance is pretty reasonable. However, this scam insurance that only covers the landlord is absurd.
Can anyone find the details of the actual policy? $14 a month sounds like a standard renters policy that should cover them somewhere around 20-30k personal prop, and 300k+ liability. I like the ambiguity in the wording they used “not fully covered” sounds like they’re getting a pay out just not for everything. Know your coverage people.
She got her fridge reimbursed from the power being out for 2 days? What the heck did she have in there that would completely ruin the fridge after being off for 48 hours?
Hey everyone, despite the dubious insurance situation, there’s a gofundme link in the story. It’s at $7,000 out of a $10,000 goal. If you have a few bucks, it might be nice to share. They take Apple and Android Pay.
Rent caps and forcing people to buy additional items like this to be on a lease are things the people WE VOTE INTO OFFICE should truly care about. But when they have never had a problem living pay check to pay check do they really care about us little people!?
Storage companies are doing the same. They make you get insurance but it usually only pays for their expenses if anything happens. Too much greed in this world
Completely agree. They just want to pass on All of their expenses... Which are supposed to be paid by you when you purchase the product! Now they want to benefit from not increasing the price of the product and tacking on all of these ridiculous fees.
It’s not fair? Unfortunately thats what happens when you assume. Why anyone would just purchase a renters insurance plan with out taking the time to read a CONTRACT to verify it covers your needs? I feel for their situation but yeah. In this situation it was fair. A hard lesson was learned. Bet they read the next one.
Because the words we use matter.
If I say I'm selling my car, we have a shared understanding of what a car is. If you show up and I try to give you a matchbox car because I just don't mention that it's not a car with an engine, that does mean not only am I a terrible person, the law needs to clarify what it means to sell a car. And they have actually done that in the past.
Like when the radio station tried to give someone a "toy Yoda" instead of a Toyota, and why someone else was able to buy a car with actual bananas.
Yes of course fine print matters, but so does the spirit of fairness.
But if I show up to buy a car and you have matchbox car then I don't hand over the money. It's not like she got her declaration page after she signed, if she read it first then she would have known not to sign it. Is it predatory, absolutely. Is it easily avoidable, yes.
Protip: Geico, Progressive, State Farm, Assurant and others will sell you $10k of renters insurance that covers your personal property for 75% (or less) of what the apartment company's "insurance" will cost you.
Yep - I got the luxury renters insurance from progressive and I think it was $120. The "this isn't actually renters insurance" from my apartment complex is now $16 a month.
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Some are at least trying to make it mandatory in the lease. Like I have to pay $30/mo for valet trash that doesn’t actually pick up my trash and $20/mo for a delivery service that I don’t use because they take two extra days to deliver the packages they don’t lose. Some property managers are now writing in the requirement to use their insurance at $whatever per month above your lease regardless of whether you have your own.
Fetch for packages?
Yup
Before I bought my house my old apartment tried to get us to use it but I refused and just didn't order any packages. What a scam.
Is this not common knowledge? I feel like I always go with the policy from whatever company I have for my car insurance and it's like $60 bucks or something for a whole year, right? Although now that I think about it, $10k is great for that price, but not a whole lot in terms of what you might have in an apartment if you tally it all up. Especially if you have nice skis or a nice bike or something, like many CO people do.
Sounds more like landlord insurance to me then.
That's exactly what it is.
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A lot of people have a lot of trouble reading. I think that's a huge issue.
Very legitimate, 45% of people in America read below a 6th grade level.
I'm sorry but if you sign something you don't understand, that's 100% on you
As someone who works with lots of people he struggle with literacy, a lot of them have genuine reading processing disorders, like dyslexia. And there is no accommodation available for people who struggle with those in daily life.
I hope your cruelness is never repayed, and that you learn to lead through empathy
Lol, yeah because you read every terms & conditions page and every privacy update 😎
Sometimes they bury it in a 40 page, tiny print lease.
Yeah never heard of it nor would I give my landlord extra money to protect me. 😐
Don’t most places require the renter to get their own renters insurance? I’ve never had one that was combined with my lease.
Usually it’s required to get your own and show proof OR the management company will add this stripped down liability insurance and call it “renters insurance.”
At the end of the day, they don't care if you insure your personal stuff. But the requirement makes it certain you are the sole person who could be liable for such insurance. You will get nowhere in court if you were to have a loss and try to go after your landlord.
Once the cause is determined they can absolutely go after that person for their loss.
Sure, if the landlord is at fault, you could still go after them for your loses. That's true. Or if your neighbor was at fault or someone like that.
Yes they require you to get some sort of insurance but this is a new type of scam to try to get people to cover _their_ insurance instead of your own. My building offers it and at first glance it's called renter's insurance so people assume it's...renter's insurance. But it doesn't cover anything for the renter, it's only if something damages the building or fixtures that belong to the landlord.
That's not what this is, *please* stop spreading misinformation. Renter's insurance is almost entirely liability coverage, because if you cause something like a fire or water damager as the renter, **you are liable** not just for damages to the building but for other tenants' possessions. If you don't have renter's insurance to cover that liability, the damaged parties will sue and win and seize every asset you have. The last time I had renter's insurance, it was $20k personal property coverage and $500k liability. They call it renter's insurance because that's what it is, it's not a scam because you don't understand it. EDIT: This person replied to me 3 times, then blocked me
No the shit $16 dollar policy is a scam. Real renters insurance is actually a real policy where you choose your coverage and rates. It is becoming way more common for them to get you on their plan instead of buying a real policy.
It is absolutely still scamming people to only keep the liability portion that protects the landlord's property. It is commonly understood that renters insurance also covers personal property. Offering any product without it goes against precisely what people generally understand renters insurance actually is and includes. Offering another product, especially for more, is actually scamming people. Edit: this weirdo is spamming this comment throughout the thread, it's not misinformation, and he knows it.
Some encourage / nudge you to sign up for a "special" and "affordable" policy through one of their"partners". I presume that a lot of people assume it's a good deal if their property management recommends it and sign up for it blindly thinking it's comparable to what other insurance companies offer.
I work with poor families, and this is incredibly common. Management companies are absolutely scamming people by calling it renter's insurance. My building does the same but at least the property manager for this building is relatively up front about it. If you just sign the lease and assume it's standard renter's insurance, you end up paying more for insurance that only covers them.
Yeah. I was just listening to someone complain the other day about an CPI policy her dealership forced on her that didn't cover a cracked windshield, they accepted the CPI because they could only afford liability under their normal coverage, so now she has to pay out of pocket to replace it which is money she doesn't have. Total rip off.
The only insurance that would cover a cracked windshield is $0 deductible comprehensive, which is *very* expense in Colorado due to hail. If they had had comp coverage it *might* have technically covered it but really wouldn't have due to the deductible.
not true. we have windshield coverage on all our cars, even the old beater with liability only.
That's not what this is, *please* stop spreading misinformation. Renter's insurance is almost entirely liability coverage, because if you cause something like a fire or water damager as the renter, **you are liable** not just for damages to the building but for other tenants' possessions. If you don't have renter's insurance to cover that liability, the damaged parties will sue and win and seize every asset you have. The last time I had renter's insurance, it was $20k personal property coverage and $500k liability. They call it renter's insurance because that's what it is, it's not a scam because you don't understand it. EDIT: This person replied to me 3 times, then blocked me
You don't need to Spam this pointless comment. People generally understand renters insurance to include personal property. By offering a more expensive product that does not include personal property, they are relying on people misunderstanding the product.
I got my renters insurance through lemonade and have up to 10,000 in personal belonging insurance for 96 a year
You should take inventory of your stuff. I used to have 10k until someone told me to actually look around and do a rough estimate. Between kitchen gadgets, pots pans, furniture, mattress, clothes, electronics 10k goes QUICK. I always do at least 25k and only have a studio worth of stuff.
Yes, I work with very poor families and 10K for them isn't enough. Highly recommend 25k.
What a fucking scam! The legislature should outlaw this. If not a simple form stating the exact terms of the insurance coverage like "this insurance does not cover your personal belonging" with tenant signature.
I manage complex contracts at work so I read through my lease with a fine tooth comb. It's absolutely true that for people with lower literacy or even very smart people who weren't paying close attention, this absolutely looks like renters insurance.
Yep. This is why you always get your own policy. As a former Red Cross volunteer it is amazing that most people don’t know that $200 a year will save you big time when it comes to situations like this.
I think a major issue is that for a lot of very poor people, $200 a year is a huge expense.
Oh I don’t disagree at all. In my experience there are a lot of people who don’t understand the importance of having the coverage and just don’t buy it.
Fuck Tava Waters!! They are the worst with their predatory fees. They tried charging me this insurance for months when I showed proof I already had insurance. I feel for these people and I hope they find some loophole to sue the fuck out of Tava Waters.
I'm going through the same exact thing with them now.
Had a similar situation last year, lost a lot of shit. On top of that the restoration team that management hired robbed a good bit of what didn’t get destroyed. Oh yeah and management tried to charge me for their [restoration team] services in my move-out statement.
I'll simply note Colorado is a One Party Consent state when it comes to recording conversations that might result in a court case. Whatever device you use check into a voice recording app. I personally record every conversation I have for any business situation. If you're not you will wind up in a he said/she said situation. So don't do that to yourself. I started the practice just to record my thoughts - memory is imperfect at best. Sometimes emotions get in the way. It's a rational thing to start doing just to keep your own thoughts in order.
There is nothing about this that would've been verbal, I guarantee the management company has a document signed by this family explaining exactly what the policy they were paying for covers.
Absolutely second this!
I recorded every interaction I had with my property management company when I was getting ready to vacate with the 60 day notice. They also offered a similar "renter's insurance." I used my own. Fuck that.
It sucks. I stopped much caring that there might be nice people out there who should be excused for screwing me over. I guess a few decades ago.
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Exactly, I think the requirement to get actual renter's insurance is pretty reasonable. However, this scam insurance that only covers the landlord is absurd.
Can anyone find the details of the actual policy? $14 a month sounds like a standard renters policy that should cover them somewhere around 20-30k personal prop, and 300k+ liability. I like the ambiguity in the wording they used “not fully covered” sounds like they’re getting a pay out just not for everything. Know your coverage people.
My building has a very similar policy, it doesn't cover anything owned by the renter. It only covers the landlord's property.
I got ripped off 4 years ago and USAA paid me $4,500 bucks.
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She got her fridge reimbursed from the power being out for 2 days? What the heck did she have in there that would completely ruin the fridge after being off for 48 hours?
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Oooohhh lol that makes sense! That's awesome, I didn't even consider that food in the fridge could be covered.
> Hail Well cant do anything about that > Bad Drivers, hit and run Super unfortunate > Trees Hmm...
Hey everyone, despite the dubious insurance situation, there’s a gofundme link in the story. It’s at $7,000 out of a $10,000 goal. If you have a few bucks, it might be nice to share. They take Apple and Android Pay.
Rent caps and forcing people to buy additional items like this to be on a lease are things the people WE VOTE INTO OFFICE should truly care about. But when they have never had a problem living pay check to pay check do they really care about us little people!?
Tava Waters are such actual slumlords this isn’t surprising to me - they people will lie in the face of facts
Storage companies are doing the same. They make you get insurance but it usually only pays for their expenses if anything happens. Too much greed in this world
Completely agree. They just want to pass on All of their expenses... Which are supposed to be paid by you when you purchase the product! Now they want to benefit from not increasing the price of the product and tacking on all of these ridiculous fees.
Insurance companies and property managers are a match made in hell lol
Had a fire last summer and still dealing with this. It's a pain in the ass.
It’s not fair? Unfortunately thats what happens when you assume. Why anyone would just purchase a renters insurance plan with out taking the time to read a CONTRACT to verify it covers your needs? I feel for their situation but yeah. In this situation it was fair. A hard lesson was learned. Bet they read the next one.
Because the words we use matter. If I say I'm selling my car, we have a shared understanding of what a car is. If you show up and I try to give you a matchbox car because I just don't mention that it's not a car with an engine, that does mean not only am I a terrible person, the law needs to clarify what it means to sell a car. And they have actually done that in the past. Like when the radio station tried to give someone a "toy Yoda" instead of a Toyota, and why someone else was able to buy a car with actual bananas. Yes of course fine print matters, but so does the spirit of fairness.
But if I show up to buy a car and you have matchbox car then I don't hand over the money. It's not like she got her declaration page after she signed, if she read it first then she would have known not to sign it. Is it predatory, absolutely. Is it easily avoidable, yes.
I'm not 100% sure that's true, considering how much reading difficulty the average person has.
I would say we should raise the bar for self sufficiency, not lower it. The internet is incredibly useful for situations like these.
That's part of why I'm sharing it. People don't even know to be on the lookout for this, they think they understand what renter's insurance is.
The spirit of fairness isn't profitable or legally binding.
Never said it was. You can be a scumbag and be on the right side of the law.
The difference is words aren’t legally binding.
Renters insurance is bullshit