Hignell Rentals Blog

Chico Apartment Safety: Renter’s Insurance

Written by Hignell Rentals Team | March 11, 2022

If you’re thinking that you only need insurance if you own a home, you’re not alone. We don’t want you to learn the hard way though, so to help make sure your apartment living season in life is kept safe and secure we’re here to tell you about five real-life stories that could happen to you.

Scenario One: The Lonely Candle Stick

It’s a romantic evening and your neighbors decide to have a nice candlelit dinner. They then proceed to hit the town while forgetting to blow their dim lit candle out when leaving the apartment. Sassafras the cat decides to test his leaping ability and launch from the top of the fridge to the kitchen table accidentally knocking over the candle and catching the apartment on fire. Oh, and remember you’re living in an apartment, so your neighbors are really close by. If their apartment catches on fire and you have to reap some of the consequences, they don’t have renter’s insurance but you do, so you’re covered for the damage.

Scenario Two: The Inside Pool

Here’s the set up…a cold and rainy night makes a nice warm bath sound amazing so you proceed to the bathroom and crank that bathtub knob to full blast. While you go prepare a nice cup of apple cider in the kitchen your significant other calls to tell you about how they just hit a squirrel on the way home, a common occurrence living in Chico, but always story-worthy nonetheless. Meanwhile, as you discuss the tragic death of one of God’s most beloved creatures your bathtub starts to overflow and spill out the edges soaking your bathroom floor and bedroom with a layer of water that damages your entire base flooring. Oops is right! But don’t worry, because renter’s insurance can cover that too!

Scenario Three: Is This My house?

Imagine a lovely spring day living in Chico. You’re walking along a sidewalk in a nice neighborhood or apartment complex and you realize you don’t have a key. You decide to break through a window to get inside. Nobody is home when you do it so you don’t bother a single soul. While you’re in the house you decide to grab a laptop, camera, $400 in cash and a backpack for that 7-11 Slurpee when it gets too cold to hold. So, you take it, head out the door and hit the park, when all of a sudden you realize “Oh wait, this isn’t my stuff, I don’t even live in that neighborhood!”

You get the picture…Some people like to test out their “007 theft acting ability” on your home once in awhile. For safe measure, get renter’s insurance, it covers people who forget where they live.

Scenario Four: The Nobody is Home Dance

Picture this. It’s late, quiet and nobody is home when all of a sudden you get the uncontrollable urge to dance the night away while you crank “Gangnam Style” in your apartment living room. All is great until you hit the line “Ompa Gangnam Style” and then your body proceeds to take on a new form of seizures while trying to bust out the fanciest dance move possible.  All of a sudden you unexpectedly whip out your signature karate side kick and knock over mom’s $2,000 vase she brought you made from minerals found in the deep jungles of Africa. Now you’re sad, not only because your signature move had an epic fail, but your mom is about to come over for the holidays and when she sees her broken vase she will probably proceed to lay down the woopin’!

Let me tell you, if you have renter’s insurance it will soften the blow of that twig branch outside...maybe.

Scenario Five: Renter’s Insurance vs. Sierra Nevada Cheeseburger

The last and final reason why you need renter’s insurance is because all the nerds do it. Let me tell you, those smart people out there may not look like they have swag but they sure know how to save money and keep their five gaming computers safe. You know, just in case the hot pocket in the microwave explodes and catches the apartment on fire or someone decides to steal their equipment that took years to afford.

Apartment living in Chico is generally safe, but stuff does happen. The simple decision is this: cut out one restaurant cheeseburger or a few Starbucks coffees per month and you’ve covered what it costs for renter’s insurance, protecting you and giving you peace of mind. Let me tell you, it’s worth it – I know because one of the scenarios above really happened to me.

*Please understand that we do everything in our power to run a safe property, but we can’t guarantee safety as we have no control over such events as a zombie apocalypse or sudden alien takeover. We are also not legally responsible for a sudden influx of fire breathing dragons or the damage they cause. We encourage our residents to take proper safety precautions and alert us when necessary.

For more information about renter's insurance download our Renter's Insurance 101 eBook today! This FREE resource will give you the inside scope on all things renter's insurance.