Renters insurance, plainly

What renters insurance actually is

The Texas Department of Insurance puts it in one line: renters insurance "protects your personal belongings and gives you liability coverage" — and there are only a few companies in Texas that don't sell it. It has three moving parts:

Some companies sell a named-perils version instead: it only pays for events the policy specifically names, usually costs less — and "isn't as common as it used to be," per TDI.

The trap door: flood is not in it

The fine print that decides real claims

Replacement cost vs. actual cash value

TDI: most policies default to actual cash value — "what your belongings were worth at the time they were lost or damaged." A replacement cost policy pays what new equivalents cost. TDI's example deserves printing whole: "If you have a replacement cost policy and your 10-year-old laptop is stolen, you will get a new laptop. If you have an actual cash value policy, you will get what the laptop was worth, which might be nowhere near what it costs to replace." Replacement cost usually costs extra. Ask which one you're buying.

Sub-limits: the small numbers inside the big number

A policy's headline limit is not what every item gets. TDI's standard list of caps: cash — $100; business property — $2,500; jewelry and furs — $500 for loss by theft. Jewelry, electronics, art, and antiques can be covered past those caps with a scheduled endorsement or floater; TDI's advice when your valuables outgrow the policy: "talk to your company or agent about additional coverage." Named valuables on a floater are also covered if you simply lose them — a standard policy won't do that.

The deductible is doing quiet work

TDI: raising your deductible lowers your premium; lowering it raises the premium. Their caution, printed because it's the sentence sales pages skip: "you'll have to pay the deductible out of your pocket when you make a claim."

Also on the menu, per TDI

• Some policies include credit card coverage if your card is stolen or used without permission.
• The premium levers TDI names: the amount of coverage, your deductible, your location, the type of building, and how close you are to a fire station.
• Students: a dependent away at school is covered up to 10% of the parent's liability and personal property limits if they live on campus or are 24 or younger.

"My lease makes me buy it" — the Houston framing

TDI: "Renters insurance isn't required by law. Some landlords might require you to have a renters policy." That some-landlords line is most of Houston's apartment and townhome market — if your lease names a liability minimum (commonly $100,000, though your lease's number is the only one that counts), your landlord's requirement is about their protection; the personal-property half of the same policy is yours. And the mirror-image myth, also TDI's: "Your landlord's insurance policy doesn't protect you against loss of your personal belongings or liability claims." Their policy covers their building. Full stop.

What it costs: TDI's consumer page says "The average cost of renters insurance in Texas is $20 a month." Honest label: that figure sits on TDI's page without a date, so we print it as TDI's undated average, not as a 2026 price. Your quote will move with coverage amount, deductible, and ZIP — anyone who quotes you a single "Texas price" is selling, not informing.

How TDI itself says to shop

Sources for this shelf

Collected November 1, 2026: Texas Department of Insurance — "Renters insurance" consumer guide (tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html) and "HelpInsure — Renters FAQs" (helpinsure.com/other/rentersfaqs.html), quoted throughout. The TDI complaint dataset (data.texas.gov, dataset pa9u-9s9w) is named, public, and tracked — its per-company rows were not readable through this pass's fetch tools; the ranking waits on readable data, not on willingness. Full citations in SOURCES.md.