On Dec. 5, 2001, four girls returned home to find flames burning up from their Sunrise Court home.
By the time the night was over, their house and all their possessions were burned away. And because they never applied for relatively inexpensive rental insurance, they had nothing but limited coverage from their parents’ insurance to help them out.
Most MSU students who live off campus seem to be in similar situations.
“Students don’t take advantage of renter’s insurance because they don’t think it’s going to happen to them,” said Tom Houle, an East Lansing insurance agent.
Renter’s insurance covers personal and property damage, among other things. For about $150 per year, students could have all their belongings covered and save hundreds of dollars in the event of a loss.
“There’s a lot of things rental insurance can do for you,” Houle said. “It gives you liability protection. It covers you in the event of a loss. For instance, if there’s a fire in your kitchen and you have to stay in a hotel while your kitchen is repaired, that cost is picked up by the insurance agency.”
So if this insurance is so cheap and effective, why don’t students cash in?
Houle said part of the problem is that students aren’t aware of the necessity for renter’s insurance.
“In many cases when students move onto campus, they know homeowner’s insurance covers the dorms,” he said. “But once they move into an apartment, they don’t realize it’s not covered anymore. Anything could happen. You’re basically at the mercy of your neighbors.”
Crystal Dockter, the assistant manager at the leasing office for DTN Management Co., said she always stresses the importance of renter’s insurance to students, but not all students take heed of her advice.
“We have a recommendation in our lease that we go over when students sign the lease,” she said. “I always recommend it, especially after the fire last December where the girls were covered under their parents’ insurance, but it didn’t take care of everything.
“I highly stress the importance of them getting their own insurance, and looking into their parents’ insurance to see if it covers their belongings.”
Students’ reactions during those lectures seems to vary, Dockter said.
“I know several people who have it, and several who could care less,” she said. “I think it depends on how much of their own stuff students are bringing into the apartments. A lot of our apartments are furnished so they don’t have to bring much, and then they aren’t too worried about the insurance.”
Mechanical engineering junior Tom Tomlinson said he and his roommates, who rent a house on Durand Street, weren’t very well-informed about renter’s insurance.
“We were never informed about insurance, and we never really talk about it,” he said. “I think it’s only come up in conversation twice.”
Tomlinson said he rarely worries about not having insurance protection.
“It doesn’t really concern you, because you don’t think anything’s going to happen to you,” he said.
International relations sophomore Nicole Taxler-Wright said renter’s insurance isn’t a priority to her, especially financially.
“I think a lot of the reason I don’t have it is money issues,” she said. “I have my cell phone and car payment. I don’t think it’s high on the priority list.”
She also just doesn’t feel it is essential to her safety.
“I feel that my apartment is safe, because there’s a doorman, security and video cameras,” she said. “So even though it’s not the safest neighborhood, I feel secure.”
Taxler-Wright’s mother and Kalamazoo resident Amy Wright isn’t really worried either.
“It doesn’t really concern me that she doesn’t have it,” she said. “I don’t see many dangers associated with Nicole’s apartment, because she’s not as close to campus. Where she’s located is a relatively safe neighborhood, and I don’t really see the necessity for it.”
As Tomlinson said, renter’s insurance just isn’t on students’ minds.
“We just never thought about it. We were never really told about it,” he said.
