<p>The student policies do have a liability option.</p>
<p>MD Mom–of the links posted, none have a liability option that covers building damage or injuries. A standard renter’s policy would cover those along with contents.</p>
<p>When I ordered the policies yesterday, I would have sworn that there was a liability option. I could be confused, but at the bottom of the order form, it asked whether the student had a bike worth more than$2k, an instrument worth more than $2k, and I thought the last one was a liability option. It is good to look for it if people are ordering. Thank you, SteveMA.</p>
<p>Our homeowner’s insurance covers my son’s belongings if he is living in a dorm – but not if he lives off-campus. Good thing to check with your carrier.</p>
<p>This is also a timely reminder for those of us whose offspring are heading off to new jobs and apartments – urge them to get renter’s insurance. Have added it to the launch list for S1 for when he leaves next month.</p>
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<p>But the $1,000 for a high end laptop may be much less of an issue than the term paper due the next day or the PhD thesis that the student has worked for years on that was on the hard drive.</p>
<p>Make sure that important data is backed up (and encrypted if sensitive).</p>
<p>^^^CSI does offer liability option while NSSI does not. I just ordered liability and personal policy from CSI for our S who will live in an off-campus apartment. $50K renters liability insurance is required before he can pick up his key. It seems CSI is the best option (deductible from $25 to $ 100 for personal property) for us while State Farm, for example, has a comparable premium but the minimum deductible is $1K.</p>
<p>^ Yes, MD Mom, you should go back and look. The only thing I can think of is if you live in a state where CSI can’t write the renter’s liability. See this page from the CSI website: [Liability</a> Coverage](<a href=“http://www.collegestudentinsurance.com/liability.php]Liability”>http://www.collegestudentinsurance.com/liability.php)</p>
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<p>Our homeowners covers our students even in a rental.</p>
<p>If students are living in dorms versus a rental for rental insurance, does it matter?</p>
<p>And of course ucbalumnus, anyone working on any valuable document who does not do any back up is asking for a problem.</p>
<p>I email to a gmail account all my final drafts for projects I work on. Always accessible then.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great information and links. I had forgotten I needed to get something set up since our homeowner’s doesn’t cover D out of state. Now to figure out how much coverage she really needs and get photos and receipts…</p>
<p>Just an update. They arrested someone yesterday who was selling stuff out of his car half a block from DD’s apartment. I hope she can recover something. AND I hope it was the guy and he is off the street. dD’s stuff alone should make for a good charge. </p>
<p>Our homeowner’s does cover her, but perhaps we will not need to file a claim.</p>
<p>The guy arrested did not have her stuff, bummer.</p>
<p>Lakemom, for CSI, it doesn’t matter whether or not you are in a dorm or an apartment, as long as you are a student. I just met with our insurance agent today who told me that our son would be covered under our homeowner’s insurance in his apartment. That being said, we’re still going to renew the CSI insurance he has had in the dorm the past couple of years. It’s good to have the homeowner’s coverage for more catastrophic coverage, fire, theft, etc., but CSI pays for damage to things like laptops and cell phones with a $25 deductible. I think adding $100,000 liability would add another $42 or so to the regular policy.</p>
<p>If you have a large claim and your homeowner’s policy has a $1000 deductible, for example, and you have CSI insurance for $6,000 property, you could theoretically use the CSI policy to cover your homeowner’s deductible, I believe.</p>
<p>Specific renter’s policies we looked into had a minimum $25,000 property coverage and categories like “loss of use” for hotel/living costs in the event you are displaced from your apartment. Given DS doesn’t have $25,000 worth of personal property (!), it seemed like more coverage than we needed. Those policies were around $190 with a $250 deductible, but didn’t not cover accidental damage.</p>
<p>If you are currently paying a cell phone insurance policy, it is about $60 a year. So if you drop that, for $70 more, you can get all property covered.</p>
<p>MD Mom–do you know if you can add several cell phones to one plan–say all of our cell phones or are those plans specific to one person?</p>
<p>The plan is specific to one person, BUT it asks permanent address and name of insured. My cell phone plan does not list who has what number. Not that I would encourage anyone to commit insurance fraud.</p>
<p>My D is living in an apartment with 3 other girls. How is the common stuff covered if she has renters insurance and the others don’t? I know we can investigate this, but this is on hubby’s todo list not mine, just thought I’d ask here. I remember back in my rental days there was restrictions that all needed coverage. She currently has a year long CSI policy from last year’s dorm room.</p>
<p>I think that with most college student robberies, and I am not an expert, thieves are taking things they can sell: electronics, jewelry, etc. Most of the common items, such as microwaves, couches, and even tv sets are of little interest because they want to carry the stuff out. </p>
<p>When I called our homeowner’s company, the rep asked whether my daughter had roommates. I said that she did, but the only things taken were my daughter’s (her apartment mate had gone home for the summer and subletted, the sublettee was gone, and the apartment mate had cleared her stuff for the sublet). The insurance company rep told me not to claim anything that belonged to the apartment mate. Got it.</p>
<p>As with most things, there is some trust on the part of the insurance company that you will not claim other things that belonged to roommates. For us, we will lose because my daughter does not wear her jewelry much and she said on the original police report that she had about $200 worth of costume jewelry. When I started getting receipts from our regular jewelry store and a craft store where I shop, the total was closer to $1100. She did , however, know what her Xbox and phone were worth. Hmmmm.</p>
<p>SteveMA, another way to look at that insurance would be that (in our case) I pay for all phones and I let my children use them. So they all belong to me. The complications come in in the case of a theft as to where the phone was at the time.</p>
<p>jackief–only her stuff would be covered under a traditional rental policy. I’m not sure what you mean by “common things” though. It gets a little tricky with roommates so the best thing to do is make a list of what is her’s and keep that at your house.</p>
<p>Thanks MD. I was just wondering if we should drop our cell phone insurance and get one of these policies. Since everyone is going to be living different places next year, probably won’t be worth it.</p>
<p>MD Mom, bummer about the guy who was arrested not having her stuff. It sounds like your homeowners insurance will cover at least some of her loss, so that’s at least some relief. Can your DD not update her police report with the new value, explaining truthfully that she had no idea what her stuff was worth? </p>
<p>Hope she is emotionally ok (and that your DS does ok starting school in a sling, and recovers quickly/well, from your other thread!)</p>