When Your Landlord Requires Renters Insurance

A landlord can make renters insurance a condition of your lease, and once you sign, keeping the policy in force is a lease obligation like paying rent. Read the clause for the minimum liability limit, whether you must list the landlord on your policy, and when you must show proof. Some states add rules: Oregon bars the requirement for lower-income households and subsidized units and limits how much liability coverage a landlord can demand, and Virginia lets a landlord buy a policy for you and add the cost to your rent if yours lapses.

Can a landlord legally require renters insurance?

Renters insurance is not required by law, the Texas Department of Insurance notes, but some landlords require it in the lease. If your state has no specific rule, the lease clause sets the terms, so read it before you sign. Oregon and Virginia regulate the requirement directly.

Oregon

Oregon's rules, in ORS 90.222, apply to a requirement to carry renter's liability insurance:

• The requirement must be in a written rental agreement, and before the tenancy starts the landlord must tell you in writing how much coverage is required and give you a summary of the exceptions.
• A landlord cannot require the insurance if your household income is at or below 50 percent of the area median income, adjusted for household size up to five people.
• A landlord also cannot require it if your unit is subsidized with public funds, such as tax credits, HOME or Community Development Block Grant funds, project-based federal rent subsidies, or tax-exempt bonds. A tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher does not count as a subsidy for this rule.
• The landlord must carry comparable liability insurance itself and show you documentation if you ask.
• To add the requirement to an existing month-to-month tenancy, the landlord must give you at least 30 days' written notice.
• If a landlord knowingly violates the statute, you can recover your actual damages or $250, whichever is greater.

Virginia

Under Va. Code section 55.1-1206, a landlord can require renter's insurance as specified in the rental agreement. If your lease does not require it, the landlord must tell you in writing before you sign that the landlord is not responsible for your belongings, that its insurance does not cover them, and that renters insurance does not cover flood damage.

What the lease clause can require

• A minimum liability limit. Liability coverage pays if you are legally responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property, which can include the landlord's building. Oregon caps the required amount at $100,000 per occurrence unless landlords customarily require more for similar rentals in the same market. Liability coverage explained covers how much to carry.
• The landlord listed as an interested party. Your insurer then notifies the landlord if the policy is canceled, not renewed, or reduced, or if the landlord is removed from it. An interested party receives notices only; it is not covered by your policy.
• The landlord named as an additional insured. This status extends your policy's liability coverage to the landlord. Oregon bars landlords from requiring it. Oregon also bars requiring that you buy from a particular insurer or that you waive your insurer's subrogation rights, its right to recover what it paid on a claim from whoever caused the loss.
• Proof of coverage. Oregon lets a landlord ask for proof before the tenancy begins and again on a schedule tied to the policy term, or sooner if the landlord reasonably believes the policy has ended. In Virginia, if you buy your own policy instead of joining the landlord's, you must give the landlord written proof and keep the coverage for the whole lease.

To meet the clause:

1. Buy a policy with at least the required liability limit, comparing quotes on the same terms; how to compare renters insurance quotes has a checklist.
2. Ask your insurer to add the landlord as an interested party, using the landlord's name and address exactly as they appear in the lease.
3. Before move-in, send the landlord your declarations page, the policy summary that shows your coverage limits and policy dates, and keep a copy.
4. Send new proof after each renewal.

How landlord-sponsored insurance differs from your own policy

Some landlords offer to enroll you in coverage they arrange and add the cost to your monthly charges. Before you accept, ask for the policy summary or certificate and check:

• Who is insured. Coverage that names you as an insured protects you; coverage that names only the landlord protects the landlord.
• Your belongings. Whether it pays for your own property, and up to what limit.
• Your liability. Whether it covers injuries to guests and damage to other units, or only damage you cause to the landlord's property.
• The deductible and monthly cost, compared with your own policy. A full renters policy averaged $173 a year in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) 2023 data; renters insurance costs by state has the figure for yours.
• The opt-out. Whether you can skip the program by showing proof of your own policy.

Virginia regulates these programs. A landlord that buys renter's insurance for tenants must use a policy that covers you as an insured and, before you sign the lease, give you a summary or certificate from the insurer that says whether the policy waives subrogation; you can also ask for a copy of the full policy. The landlord can charge you the premium, which counts as rent, plus administrative fees. If the landlord requires premiums paid to it before the tenancy begins, the combined security deposits, damage insurance premiums, and renters insurance premiums cannot exceed two months' periodic rent. The landlord may add a monthly rent charge to recover additional renters insurance premium costs. The landlord must also tell you in writing that you have the right to buy your own policy instead.

Damage insurance is a different product. Virginia defines it as a bond or commercial insurance that secures your performance of the lease and replaces all or part of a security deposit, so it protects the landlord rather than your belongings. If you opt out of a landlord's damage insurance program in Virginia, the landlord must let you provide your own damage policy or pay the full security deposit. Security deposit alternatives compares these options.

What happens if your coverage lapses

If the landlord is listed as an interested party, your insurer notifies the landlord when the policy is canceled or not renewed. The lapse breaks the lease term, and your state's rules decide what the landlord can do next:

• Virginia: the landlord can put you on its own renter's insurance and charge the premiums as rent until you give written proof that you have reinstated your own coverage.
• Oregon: the landlord can generally give a for-cause termination notice under ORS 90.392, with a termination date at least 30 days away. If the violation can be fixed, the notice must give you at least 14 days to cure it, and getting insurance by that deadline cures it. However, if substantially the same violation was the subject of a notice under this section within the previous six months, the landlord can give at least 10 days' notice without another right to prevent termination by restoring coverage. The new termination date cannot be earlier than the prior notice's termination date.
• Other states: your lease and your state's rules on lease violations set the next step, which can be a notice to cure or a notice ending the tenancy.

A lapse also leaves you uninsured. If you cause a fire or water leak that damages the building or a neighbor's unit and you are legally responsible, you pay those damages yourself, and nothing replaces your own belongings.

Most insurers do not give a grace period for late premiums, according to the NAIC, so set up automatic payments. If your insurer cancels or will not renew, buy a replacement policy that starts before the old one ends and send the landlord the new proof.

For what your own policy covers, see what renters insurance covers.