Covering Pet Liability Costs With Renters Insurance

The personal liability portion of renters insurance covers third-party damage or injury caused by your pet. This means you are covered if your pet hurts others or damages others’ property, while you and your property are not covered. When you purchase a renters insurance policy, you’ll have to decide on a liability coverage limit, and you’ll be responsible for expenses above that limit.

Some examples of pet incidents typically covered by personal liability insurance include: 

• Your cat scratches a guest, and they require medical treatment.
• Your dog bites a visitor, and they need to go to the hospital.
• Your pet damages a guest’s personal property, like having an accident on their expensive laptop.

Renters insurance liability coverage doesn’t cover injuries your pet causes to you, or damages it causes to your property or your apartment. Renters insurance also doesn’t cover any of your pet’s health costs, which are covered by pet insurance. 

For example, if your elderly pet has an accident on a carpet owned by the landlord, your renters insurance wouldn't cover the damage. Similarly, if your pet is injured inside or outside your apartment, renters insurance won’t cover the vet bill. Instead, you should consider purchasing pet insurance to cover your pet’s health expenses.

Depending on your insurance provider, renters insurance liability coverage might not cover some dog breeds or exotic pets. Certain breeds of dogs, like pit bulls and German Shepherds, are considered higher risk by insurers and may not be covered.

Exotic pets like reptiles, wolves or other wild animals usually aren't covered either. If you're unsure whether your renters insurance covers your pet, check with your provider.

You can purchase renters insurance from most major insurance companies, as well as smaller insurers like Lemonade. Most policies require a minimum of $100,000 in liability coverage.

With $20,000 of personal property coverage, typical renters insurance policies have an average cost of about $13 per month. Be sure to shop around and compare coverage to find either the best renters insurance providers to meet your needs or the cheapest renters insurance to get the lowest rate.

If you're concerned about your liability and need additional coverage, it generally costs only a few dollars per month to switch to a higher liability coverage limit of $300,000. If you're not sure what coverage limit makes sense for your situation, most insurance providers can help you find the right coverage.

The best policy balances affordability, service quality and coverage. Getting quotes for renters insurance from multiple providers can help you compare offers and find the best rates. Use our renters insurance calculator below to get started.

While many renters are familiar with rental insurance policies that cover basic risks like theft or property damage due to natural disasters, they may not be as familiar with the liability coverage portion of renters insurance, which includes pet liability coverage. In this guide, we explore pet liability coverage in renters insurance to help you understand what your policy covers and doesn't.

Renters insurance can provide financial protection should your pet cause damages or injuries to a third party. However, there are certain exclusions like damages to you or your property and your pet's health costs.

We answer  common questions about pet liability insurance for renters.

Edited version:

Why Trust MoneyGeek? We obtained information from Quadrant Information Services and examined customer and claim satisfaction rates from top industry assessments: J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and AM Best. We developed a ranking methodology to compare this data and provide the best renters insurance solutions for different renter profiles at national and state levels.

Methodology

Using average premium data from all 50 states, we created a customized grading system for each renters insurance company based on four performance categories: customer service, affordability, financial stability and coverage options. Renters can assess a provider's ability by looking at the total MoneyGeek score, which combines these qualities.

Reviews and Rankings Methodology

Our rankings come from manually gathered data from user-facing insurance offerings and reputable consumer reporting agencies:

• Customer service: J.D. Power
• Financial stability: AM Best
• Affordability: Quadrant Information Services
• Coverage options: Insurer

We prioritize affordability while assigning a scale and weight to each element of an insurer's performance. We then add these individual scores together to get a total score of 100. We modify pricing information based on the persona, state or coverage limit, depending on the category.

Renters Insurance Profile

To collect quotes for our study, we used a sample profile of a renter with good credit and the following attributes:

• Has a good credit score of 769–792
• Has not made any claims in the past five years

Renters Insurance Coverage Details

Unless otherwise noted, we used these coverage limits to generate our quote analysis for renters insurance:

• $20,000 in personal property coverage
• $100,000 in personal liability coverage
• $1,000 deductible