Skip to content
IroncladMutual

Renters insurance, because your landlord insures the building and nothing else

The policy on your building pays to rebuild the building. It pays nothing for your things, your hotel room, or the unit below you when a pipe lets go.

Sample premium
$214 / yr
Policy form
HO-4
Contents basis
Replacement cost
Deductible
$250 - $1,000

$214 / yrSample. Not a quote.

One bedroom apartment, $30,000 contents, $300,000 liability, $500 deductible.

Start my quote

What the policy pays for

Your landlord insures the building. Nothing in that policy pays for your things, your hotel room, or the lawsuit when your bathtub overflows into the unit below. An HO-4 costs less per year than most people spend on coffee in a month.

Personal property$15,000 to $100,000
Everything you own, wherever it is. Contents coverage follows you off the property, including out of a car or a hotel room.
Personal liability$100,000 to $500,000
The neighbour downstairs, the guest who fell, the dog. Includes the cost of defending you even when the claim is meritless.
Loss of use20% of contents
A place to stay and the extra cost of living somewhere else while the unit is uninhabitable after a covered loss.
Medical payments$1,000 to $5,000
A guest hurt in your unit, paid without a liability finding, which usually stops a small incident becoming a claim.

What the policy on your building actually does

Almost every renter believes the owner's policy covers them in some way. It does not cover them in any way. It exists to rebuild the owner's asset, and in several of the situations below it will be the owner's insurer coming after you.

The same event, seen from two policies
What happensThe owner's policyYour HO-4
The building burns downRebuilt by the ownerYour belongings, your hotel, your extra costs
Your bathtub floods the unit belowNothing for youTheir damage and your legal defence
A laptop is taken from your carNothingContents cover follows you off the property
A guest trips on your rugNothingMedical payments, then personal liability
A pipe bursts and the unit is unlivableThey repair the unitSomewhere to live while they do

What it will not pay for

Every policy sold in the United States has exclusions. The difference between carriers is whether you find out now or on the day of the loss. These are the ones that actually catch people out on this form.

  • The building itself, its walls, its roof and its systems. That is the owner’s policy, not yours.
  • Flood and earth movement, both written separately.
  • Your roommate’s property, unless they are named on the policy.
  • A vehicle and its permanently installed equipment, which belongs on the auto policy.
A modest rental apartment interior with a radiator under a tall sash window

Endorsements worth attaching

An endorsement changes the policy. These are the ones we recommend often enough that they are priced into the bundle tiers rather than sold as extras.

Replacement cost contents

Standard from IM-2

Pays what a new equivalent costs rather than what the old one was worth.

Scheduled items

Agreed value

The engagement ring, the camera body, the bass. Listed, appraised, no deductible.

Identity restoration

$25,000

The cost of putting your credit file back together, plus lost wages for the time it takes.

Pet liability

$25,000

A separate limit for dog bite claims, which some carriers exclude entirely.

Price the whole structure, not one piece of it.

Four steps, about sixty seconds, and no obligation. An agent reviews every line together so the limits actually meet.