Charles Street
Resident’s Insurance
A resident’s (tenant’s) contents insurance package is mandatory.
Under Ontario law, the University has no legal responsibility to cover repairs or replacement of your personal belongings. Resident’s insurance covers your personal property (e.g., furniture, clothing, sports equipment, sound system, musical instruments, camera, computer, etc.) It can provide you not only with protection against theft and fire, but against water damage from plumbing break-downs, which are a real threat in buildings of this age.
A resident’s insurance package can also cover you in the event that you are found liable for loss of life or property because of negligence on your part, or for accidental loss or damage of jewelry or other property outside your premises.
Resident insurance is available from a wide variety of insurance companies that are listed online. Make sure to have the contents of your apartment covered for their replacement cost. Additionally, make sure that the contents of your storage locker, if you have one, are covered. Some plans do not cover flooding, or have a low ceiling for total damages due to flooding, so shop around.
For more information and rates, talk with an insurance agent or broker, or visit the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Web site: www.ibc.ca/on/home/rental-properties
Insurance Tips
- Take photographs of valuable items such as furniture, appliances, computers, or books and store these photos outside of the apartment in case you have to make an insurance claim.
- Keep all the receipts you possibly can to prove what you own and what you paid for it. Valuable items (e.g., cameras, computers, jewelry, etc.) are often insured only up to a set maximum
- The policy may also set a maximum amount of coverage for individual pieces. If you have items that exceed the maximum coverage, consider having them individually insured.
- Individually insured pieces are covered not only against fire, theft, and floods, but against loss and damage.
