nickdawgy

Ok, not sure if TV Talk was the right place for this, so mods please move if it belongs somewhere else.

Anyhow, the wife and I are moving to a new apartment soon, and I asked if a dish was allowed. The manager said it'd cost an extra $50 towards the deposit, and I'd be required to maintain $10,000 in liability insurance.

Now my questions are:

1. How much would something like this cost per month? Are we talking cheap like $5 a month or more like $30 or $40? If it's too high, I'll get (ugh) cable.

2. Assuming I do decide to get it, who provides it? DirecTV? My auto insurance company (I know they provide home and life, so I thought maybe this, too)? Another company?

Just curious on what my options are.

Red Dog

Do you have renter's insurance already? If not, you should. If you do, an additional $10K in liability insurance will not cost you much at all.

nickdawgy

Well I suppose we could get it. How much would that run?

Red Dog

Depends on your area and how much you have to insure. Mine is like $150/year or something like that. You never know what can happen. A friend of mine lived in an apartment in Syracuse that was basically destroyed by a huge storm in the summer of '98. He lost a lot of stuff (electronic equipment, computer, etc) due to water coming throught the roof (which was partially torn off). He would have been fucked without renters insurance.

nickdawgy

Well I live in Southern California, so I suppose fires and earthquakes could be a problem. $150 a year doesn't seem bad. Does that include the liability or not?

Mr. Salty

So could the asshole who lives next door to you who falls asleep smoking in bed. Renter's insurance is always a good idea. It protects you from loss due to fire, burglary, storm damage, if your neighbor upstairs has a ruptured water heater, and pretty much anything else. (And no, I'm not an insurance agent.)

Abranut

I'm not sure about liability, but your car insurance company will often give you a big discount on your car insurance if you get renter's insurance from them. You may end up even having a lower total insurance bill than before, but don't hold me to that.

nickdawgy

So assuming I get renters insurance for say $150ish a year, take a guess.... how much extra is the liability insurance? A few bucks? More then $10? Just wondering.

kvrdave

Probably about that. It may even be included.

tasha99

I'm pretty sure my rental insurance includes some liability insurance. Hopefully things will have changed by now, but when I tried buying renter's insurance in California in the mid 90's, no place would do it because of all the earthquakes and floods etc.

nickdawgy

Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll try and get renters insurance through my auto insurance company.

Duran

It usually includes a base liability insurance, but you might have to increase it in this case.

Regardless of DirecTV, you need renter's insurance, unless you could easily afford the financial hit from having everything in your apartment stolen or destroyed. The landlord is not responsible for your personal property in the event of a fire, water damage, etc. unless there was negligence involved.

Red Dog

Yeah - I think the basic policies carry that much liability.

Xander

Basically agree with what other posters have said. Renter's insurance is a GOOD idea. Especially if you like your stuff. You never know what whackjobs you could be living next to. And I would think liability insurance would be included under that.

Spanky BananaPants

Legally, I don't think your apartment complex can put a regulation like that on your use of a dish--I'm pretty sure FCC regs forbit it. Mine tried that, and I sucessfully fought them on it. I told them that if they wanted, we could go to court and they could explain to a judge why it was a requirement, and they backed off. This, of course, was before I knew about renter's insurance.

So, while you could probably get away with it, as others have mentioned, you should get renter's insurance anyway. I got mine through my auto insurance company, and my rates went up around $4/month. Basically, they gave me a discount on the renter's insurance for insuring my car with them, then they gave me a discount on my car for getting renter's insurance. I have $40,000 coverage too. Well worth the price.

fujishig

(if and) when you do get renter's insurance in SoCal, can you post about it and let me know? I live in LA, which to me would seem to make any rental insurance I could get go through the roof (much like my car insurance), but I'm not entirely sure.

Although it seems like rain and mudslides are more of a threat these days than earthquakes (knock on wood...)

Josh H

I have to have $500,000 liability on my renters insurance for my dish.

But it only costs me like $110 a year. I get a double policy discount from Erie Insurance for having renters and car insurance. So it's no big deal and renter's insurance is something you should have anyway.