Renters Insurance in Ireland

Renters insurance is personal to an individual and, therefore, is highly mobile, allowing you to move your insurance easily from one address to another. 

The following is a guide to what you need to know about insurance in Ireland for renters and tenants contents cover.  

Renters insurance in Ireland is cover made for those living in rented homes. It protects against the loss or damage to items in situations such as flooding, fire, theft, or accidental damage. Tenants’ insurance mainly covers the tenant’s belongings. Some policies also include liability cover, which protects you if you accidentally damage your landlord’s property.

The building you live in is insured by the owner or landlord. However, this does not include contents insurance for tenants.

Many tenants don’t realise that if they want to protect their own items, they will need to purchase specific insurance to cover all their possessions within the property.

Renters contents insurance is designed to protect a tenant’s liability and/or their possessions in the case of fire, theft or flood, among various other unexpected situations. 

This type of cover is owned by the tenant and is separate from any coverage that your landlord may have on the building itself. Common types of cover include accidental damage, liability protection and contents-only cover.

If you have particularly high-value items, such as jewellery, you may want to consider getting additional or separate cover for these. 

All insurance policies come with standard inclusions and exclusions. Tenants insurance is no different, so it’s important to know what can and cannot be included.

By default, this insurance covers the cost of replacing personal possessions owned by the tenant that are lost or damaged due to incidents such as accidents, fire, theft or flooding in the home. This includes the cost of replacing furniture, clothing and technology such as mobile phones, laptops and audio-visual equipment. 

But there are some important exclusions. For example, the replacement of audio-visual equipment is generally covered, but the media played on it is not. This would include things like computer games or vinyl record collections. If you own a particularly valuable record collection, for example, you should discuss this with your insurer. It will be possible to take additional cover on top of the standard cover to include your collection. 

Similarly, if you own particularly valuable jewellery, you should make your insurer aware of this so that it can be covered in its own right under your tenant’s insurance policy. 

Sports equipment, such as tennis rackets or bicycles, is generally covered for theft or damage that occurs within your home. However, they won’t be covered if stolen from a tennis club, damaged while in use on a court or lost while away from home. If you have valuable sports equipment you wish to cover for use outside the home, you can include it as additional sports cover. 

Remember that renters’ insurance is specific to the individual who takes it out. If another person moves into your home, their personal possessions will not be covered. Each person sharing a tenancy must take out their own contents insurance.

Everyone’s home life is different. Consequently, there are many policy add-ons available to tailor renters’ insurance to your particular needs. Many insurers offer standard add-ons to renters’ insurance, including:

Renters insurance is personal to you and the items you own in your home: furniture, phones, cameras, clothing, sporting equipment and more. It is your personal home and content insurance policy.

Landlord insurance is insurance owned by the landlord or property owner to cover damage to the building’s structure. It is specific to the damage and repair of the building, for example, in the case of a fire. 

Landlord insurance typically won’t cover furniture by default, particularly if the property is leased or rented unfurnished.

Contents insurance for renters is designed to meet the needs of different groups of tenants. For example, students, those in house shares, and those with varying rental terms. Each has different inclusions and exclusions in their content insurance.

Common tenant segments include:

Cover limits, excess levels and optional extensions will vary depending on the insurer and the risk profile presented.

Tenant insurance costs can start from as little as €10 per month. Prices increase depending on the complexity of personal policy arrangements.

The majority of Irish tenants’ contents insurance policies are standard policies. Most people don’t need add-ons or specific cover for high-value goods. A good way to determine how much you need is to make an inventory of your contents and identify those of higher value.  You don’t necessarily need to list all your possessions for the policy provider – it’s simply a good exercise in recognising the value of your own possessions and whether you need to choose a non-standard home and content insurance policy. 

Anyone living as a tenant should consider taking out tenant’s insurance. Without it, you could face very costly consequences if you are the victim of theft or an accident. Renters insurance was created to meet the needs of tenants and renters who feel insecure in an expensive and frequently changing housing market. It’s useful to think of renters insurance as a protection more than an added cost.

There are a number of home and content insurance providers in Ireland providing renters’ insurance. They include Allianz Ireland, 123.ie, Out Insurance, Chill Insurance, Redclick Insurance, Zurich, An Post Insurance and Aviva.