Insurance

We have insurance on the house, and our possessions within it. This insurance does not cover your possessions as a renter, and it does not protect you against any liability if you inadvertently or deliberatly cause damage. This is not unique to our rental, but would be true for most rental situations. The following is a quote from the State Farm web site:

"Important Information for Renters
Even if you rent, a mishap can cost you money, or make you the target of a lawsuit. Protect yourself and your property with renters insurance.

When it comes to your clothing, jewellery, furniture, stereo, TV and other personal belongings, renting an apartment or house is no different than owning a home. You could still face the cost of repairing or replacing those items because of fire, theft, wind and other hazards.

Similarly, your exposure to lawsuits isn't that much different from that of a homeowner. You could still be held legally responsible for an accident, whether it happens at your residence or elsewhere."

We recommend that if you are being supported by your parents, and you still live at home, then you contact your parent's insurance company and see if they will cover you living away from home as a student. In order to be covered you need to be:

• Dependant upon your parents to some extent
• Living at home before you came to school
• Returning home after the school year and living at home during the summer break

If you are dependant upon your parents, but you stay away from home for the summer to work because there are more jobs here, then you may not be covered by your parents insurance.

Ask specifically about coverage of a laptop computer if you plan to bring one.

If you can not obtain coverage from your parent's policy, then we suggest that you obtain a renter's package that will cover your contents, and any liability that you may have if you cause any damage to the building. My State Farm agent suggested that:

• "Some or all of the students that are renting in the same house could all have their names put on one renter's policy.
• This will not increase the cost of the policy substantially, and all of you would be covered, and the cost could then be split among all of the participants. Roughly $111 for $10,000 coverage for one, $250 for $50,000 coverage for 5 sharing the policy."

 

Laptop Computers

These are also great targets for thieves, and many are stolen from colleges and universities. Make sure you are covered against theft. Note that most insurance does not replace software loaded onto the computer, it only covers the hardware. We recommend that you obtain and use an anti theft protection device if you take it to classes, such as a cable lock, or a motion detector alarm. Even with these, there is still a risk if this is stored in a locker.

We recommend that you do not put any information on your computer that you would not want a thief to have. Either purchase a laptop with biometric passwords, or use a hard disk password and encryption of sensitive files, using a program such as PGP or if using XP professional, use the encrypted file system..

Bicycles

These unfortunately are also a popular target for thieves. If you bring a bicycle, bring an old, unattractive model, and not a shiny, expensive model that cries out "steal me". Talk to an insurance agent or a police officer and find out which kind of bike lock systems really works. Some locks look effective and and are priced accordingly but are not a deterrent to a determined thief.

You may bring one bicycle to our home, but it must be stored outside the house, in the garden shed. The shed is not much of a physical deterrent, it just keeps the bicycles dry and out of sight. Use you bike lock! You may store the bicycle in the basement for the winter, during the entire bicycling season it must be stored in the shed.

We have three bicycles specifically for use by our Tenants, both mens and ladies models. We only ask if it is stolen when you are using it, that you replace it with a similar used one. We do not have bicycle helmets for you to use, since each person has a different sized head and it is better to have a personly fitted helmet. Bicycle helmets are not mandatory for adults in Ontario, and you may elect not to use a helmet.

Computer Repairs

We also operate a computer repair service, and thus we can assist our Tenants with computer related problems at no charge. Our repair service web site is www.johnsonscomputers.ca .