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Nerdy takeaways
- Liability coverage is the part of renters insurance that pays if you harm others or damage their property through an accident or negligence.
- Renters liability insurance may pay for legal costs if someone sues you for situations such as accidents within your home or dog bites.
- Renters liability insurance isn’t mandated by law, but your landlord may require it.
Renters liability insurance pays out if you cause injuries to other people or damage to their property. (You may see it called “personal liability” in your policy documents.) It doesn't cover injury to you or damage to your property.
In addition to personal liability coverage, a standard renters policy typically includes:
- Personal property coverage, which pays if your belongings are stolen or damaged in a disaster.
- Loss of use coverage, which pays for hotel bills and other costs if you have to move out while your home undergoes covered repairs.
🤓 Nerdy Tip
You’ll usually pay a deductible before your personal property coverage kicks in. However, there’s generally no deductible on liability claims. To get renters liability insurance, you'll typically have to buy a standard renters policy. Liability-only policies are rare and may have specific requirements. For example, Assurant offers a liability-only policy to tenants living in the company’s partner properties across the U.S.
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What renters liability insurance covers
The key thing to remember about personal liability insurance is that it covers other people and their belongings — not you and yours.
Say your dog bites someone who isn’t part of your household. Your liability insurance will likely pay to treat their injuries, as long as your policy doesn’t exclude that breed. If your dog bites you, though, you’ll have to use your own health insurance for coverage.
Did you know...
The average dog-related injury claim is more than $69,000, according to 2024 data from State Farm and the Insurance Information Institute. Read more about why your dog needs liability insurance. Here are a few other scenarios that renters liability insurance may cover:
Falls and injuries in your home. A visiting friend trips over an extension cord in your apartment, breaks their wrist and sues you for medical expenses.
Damage that starts in your home and affects others’ property. A grease fire in your kitchen damages the unit next door.
Damage to other people’s property for which you’re responsible. Your child accidentally breaks a glass door while at a friend’s house.
Liability related to social events you host. A guest at your house party has too much to drink and gets into an accident on the way home, injuring passengers in another car. (Note that your guest’s auto liability coverage might also kick in here. In some states the host who supplied the alcohol can be found liable for such an accident.)
» MORE: The best cheap renters insurance
What personal liability insurance doesn't cover
Like any other type of insurance, renters liability coverage has limitations. Here are a few scenarios that personal liability insurance won’t cover, and which types of insurance could help instead:
Injuries in common areas. A guest slips and falls on an icy sidewalk outside your apartment building. Your landlord’s liability insurance, not yours, would likely cover their medical expenses. This is because the injury happened in an area that the landlord was responsible for maintaining.
Car accidents. You cause a wreck that injures someone in another vehicle. Your liability car insurance, not your renters policy, would cover the other person's medical bills and repair costs.
Damage to your belongings. A thief breaks into your apartment and steals your laptop, TV and jewelry. This claim would fall under the personal property coverage in your renters policy, not liability.
Business liability. A client sues you over a problem arising from your home-based business. Renters insurance usually covers only personal liability claims, not those related to a business. You’ll need a commercial policy to handle this type of issue.
Intentional acts. You deliberately throw a rock and break someone else’s window. That’s a crime, not an accident, and your liability insurance likely won’t cover you.
Is renters liability insurance required?
Renters insurance isn’t required by law. But, your landlord might require renters insurance — or a minimum amount of personal liability insurance — as part of your lease.
The average cost of renters insurance is $151 a year, or about $13 a month, according to NerdWallet’s rate analysis.
Deciding between personal liability-only insurance and a standard renters insurance policy? Consider these differences:
Personal liability insurance 🤕
Covers only damage you do to others or their belongings.
Liability-only insurance for renters can also be difficult to find, as standard renters policies are more common.
Renters insurance 🏘️
Generally covers personal liability plus damage to your own belongings. Also pays expenses of living away from home during covered repairs.
This type of coverage is widely available from many insurance companies.
How much renters liability insurance do you need?
Most renters policies offer liability coverage limits ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. Not sure how much to choose? A good guideline is to add up the value of your assets, including your car, bank accounts and retirement savings. By choosing enough liability insurance to cover that amount, you’ll reduce the chances of losing everything you own in a lawsuit.
If you just landed a better-paying job or are expecting your net worth to go up in the future, you'll want to increase your liability limit accordingly.
Raising your liability limit from $100,000 to $300,000 costs an extra $12 a year, on average, according to NerdWallet’s rate analysis.
🤓 Nerdy Tip
If you need more than the maximum amount of liability coverage from your insurer, consider buying umbrella insurance. Umbrella insurance offers extra coverage that goes beyond your renters, auto or other liability limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is personal liability insurance the same as renters insurance?
Personal liability insurance is one part of a renters insurance policy. It pays if you cause harm to someone else by accident or through negligence. Although you may be able to buy a liability-only policy, a traditional renters insurance policy is more common. It also covers your personal belongings in case of fire, theft or other disasters.
What does personal liability mean in renters insurance?
The personal liability section of your renters insurance covers injuries and damage you’re responsible for. Say a dog bites a neighbor, or the fire in your kitchen damages the unit next door. Personal liability coverage would pay for the expenses up to your policy limit.
Won’t my landlord’s insurance cover me?
Your landlord’s insurance policy covers their liability, not yours. For instance, a landlord policy would likely pay if your guest slips and falls in a public area that the landlord didn’t maintain properly. But it might not cover a situation where a guest trips over one of your shoes inside your apartment. To cover your liability, you’ll need your own policy.
Methodology
To find the average cost of renters insurance in the U.S., NerdWallet calculated the median rate for 30-year-old tenants from multiple insurance companies in every ZIP code across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Sample tenants were nonsmokers with good credit living in a two-bedroom apartment. They had a $500 deductible and the following coverage limits:
- $30,000 in personal property coverage.
- $100,000 in liability coverage.
- $10,000 in additional living expenses coverage.
- $1,000 in medical payments coverage.
We made minor changes to the sample policy in cases where rates for the above coverage limits or deductibles weren’t available.
These are sample rates generated through Quadrant Information Services. Your own rates will be different.
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- 1. Insurance Information Institute. Triple-I/State Farm: US Dog-Related Injury Claim Payouts Hit $1.57 Billion in 2024. Accessed Mar 25, 2026.
