Aquarium leakage insurance

[bradleyheathhay]

I rent my house and I'm interested in buying renter's insurance that would cover the rental property (house) in the event of an aquarium leak. In this case I'm not so much concerned about covering my own property. The companies I've talked to so far (Geico, Progressive, Allstate, State Farm) will cover water damage from an aquarium but only in the cases of say vandalism or fire, but specifically not a slow leak which is what I'm more concerned about. Is anyone aware of an ins. co. that offers a policy covering a slow leak?

Thanks

 

[FreshyFresh]

Are you gone for long periods of time? Why the concerns over not catching a slow leak?

Also, worst case for you, you lose your deposit in the case of damaging the landlord's property AFAIK.

 

[authmal]

It's not a typically available coverage. My wife works in insurance, and was looking for that for us. The only way to get it would be to try to contact an esoteric provider, if there is an applicable one, and that's going to be costly.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Nothing's cheap anymore in regards to renter's or homeowner's insurance. The last 3yrs, my yearly homeowner's policy premium has gone from $750 to $850, to $1001 for this year. 15yrs of homeownership and I've never filed a claim. Called around and I'm lucky to *only* have to pay $1000/yr.

Yeah I know flood and high wind prone areas are much higher. Don't see that where I live.

 

[authmal]

Yeah, but $1000 a year for mainstream insurance such as homeowners isn't out of the realm of reason. Something esoteric, where there aren't a lot of policy holders (those premiums are where the companies make their money) means that the expected profit comes from a smaller pool of policy holders, so each share is commensurately larger.

 

[67chevelle]

In all honesty, this is not something you should be worrying about. Unless it is a massive tank, even a slow leak would be noticed before it did any damage. The repairs that will probably never need to be done would probably be less than paying for insurance.

 

[FreshyFresh]

^ That's my thinking.

If that's a major concern for you, you might want to rethink the size of your tank, where the tank is setup, etc...

FWIW, I had a 29g fail out of the blue on me while I was home (luckily). The tank was in a second floor bedroom w/ laminate flooring. Approximately 8-10 gallons dumped to the floor. A lot of which I was able to towel-up. I did have some water travel down an outside wall and wind-up on the kitchen floor below. Also had a bit on the front porch floor. No drywall stains, no problems with the laminate floor.

For this reason, I don't think (for my home) I'll have larger than a 20g on the second floor from now on. ~55-75g, OK for the first floor. Basement? The sky is the limit.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Unless required by law, insurance ensures nothing and is just money lost to fear and sortof peace of mind. Think of it this way....lets say you could get tank insurance and it was gonna cost $50-$100 a month or $500 - $1000 a year. Instead, in your minds eye, just tuck this money away in the event you ever will have a leak then you can more than pay for any damage out of pocket.
A better approach or to ensure against leaks (especially if you get/have an old or used tank), is simply to reseal it or have it done for you...."an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."