Renters Insurance Question

Indiana_Adam

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Have a friend involved in an Apartment fire, along with 17 other units. Cause of fire has not yet been determined, but pretty certain it is tenant negligence. No one in the building had renters insurance.

Hypothetical questions I'm curious about if negligent tenant had renters insurance:

If a tenant's negligence caused the fire and the destruction of everyone's pp, could the other tenants file a claim under the liability portion of the renters policy or sue?

Does the Apt. Community's property loss take priority in this situation and renter's insurance would pay out to the complex first, then if anything is left, to the other tenants? Or would it be first come first serve? Or would the insurance pay out in proportion of the loss?

I'm just curious as I don't have any experience with any losses. I'm putting together a presentation on Why tenants can't afford to not have renters insurance. These are two questions/situations that could be asked about and I'd like to have a decent idea as to the possible outcomes. Thank you in advance.

Also, if you have any pointers on the presentation, or have done something like this yourself, let me know. Did you have good results? I want to make tenants aware of thier need, hopefully get some renters policies, and ultimately get their auto.
 
Have a friend involved in an Apartment fire, along with 17 other units. Cause of fire has not yet been determined, but pretty certain it is tenant negligence. No one in the building had renters insurance.

Hypothetical questions I'm curious about if negligent tenant had renters insurance:

If a tenant's negligence caused the fire and the destruction of everyone's pp, could the other tenants file a claim under the liability portion of the renters policy or sue?

Does the Apt. Community's property loss take priority in this situation and renter's insurance would pay out to the complex first, then if anything is left, to the other tenants? Or would it be first come first serve? Or would the insurance pay out in proportion of the loss?

I'm just curious as I don't have any experience with any losses. I'm putting together a presentation on Why tenants can't afford to not have renters insurance. These are two questions/situations that could be asked about and I'd like to have a decent idea as to the possible outcomes. Thank you in advance.

Also, if you have any pointers on the presentation, or have done something like this yourself, let me know. Did you have good results? I want to make tenants aware of thier need, hopefully get some renters policies, and ultimately get their auto.

More than likely if the negligent party started a fire unintentionally the building owner would get the bulk of the money. Tenants need to carry tenants insurance for their own belongings and most landlords would have a contract in place to require this.

Maybe someone with more claims experience can chime in here, but there also may be a percentage given to each affected party...but I would venture to guess that the building owner would be first on the list for financial benefits.
 
That's what I was thinking as well. However, in Auto claims with several claimants, insurance either does the first come first serve, or breaks the liability down proportionally among claimants based on size of bills. Once again, just curious.

According to IIABA, roughly 64% of renters don't have insurance, and and 2.2% didn't know. Survey of 1,000 tenants. Don't know if 1K is a large enough sample to generalize to a population of over 300million...but still scary.
 
If a tenant's negligence caused the fire and the destruction of everyone's pp, could the other tenants file a claim under the liability portion of the renters policy or sue?

Does the Apt. Community's property loss take priority in this situation and renter's insurance would pay out to the complex first, then if anything is left, to the other tenants? Or would it be first come first serve? Or would the insurance pay out in proportion of the loss?

As I understand the way most renters insurance policies go, if tenant negligence is proven, it will cover personal prop for the policy holder and other tenants. Renters 'usually' only covers pers prop, medical and liablity. Landlord should have coverage for fire, hail, etc on the building. I could be wrong, but if the coverage on renters includes bldg damage, that would be quite an expensive renters policy.

Could be an opportunity to ask the landlord about requiring tenants to have renters insurance.
 
As I understand the way most renters insurance policies go, if tenant negligence is proven, it will cover personal prop for the policy holder and other tenants. Renters 'usually' only covers pers prop, medical and liablity. Landlord should have coverage for fire, hail, etc on the building. I could be wrong, but if the coverage on renters includes bldg damage, that would be quite an expensive renters policy.

Could be an opportunity to ask the landlord about requiring tenants to have renters insurance.

Yes but in this case if the tenant was negligent the liability portion would kick in for the building as he would be proven liable for the damages.
 
Keyosh, as BT stated, the renter's liability is going to pay out on damages to others, whether it is personal property or dwelling. If you're a P&C guy/gal, you need to know that for sure.
 

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