In Colorado every August and September college students leave home to live in dormitories and apartments surrounding their college campus. Many parents don’t realize this may cause a change in their ‘residency’ status in the eyes of their insurance carrier. To make sure their student is insured properly, they need to contact their agent and have a discussion on how to rectify this.
RENTERS INSURANCE & LIABILITY COVERAGE
In Colorado, if the student lives ‘on campus’ in a dormitory, their personal belongings are automatically still covered on their parent’s home insurance policy as legally they are still considered a resident of CO even if they are living on campus in another state.
If the student lives in a home or apartment ‘off campus’ you will need to purchase a separate renters insurance policy to get their belongings covered for fire and theft and liability to get premises liability if someone gets injured in their living space. Or some carriers will allow you to endorse their home insurance policy with a ‘second residence’ which would provide the same coverage as a renter’s insurance policy. Kids can get wild in their off time in college and drinking is prevalent, if someone gets hurt and the parent has signed the lease, the parent can be held liable. You might find a gap in coverage if you haven’t added this residence to your home policy liability or purchased a renter’s insurance policy.
AUTO INSURANCE
Regardless of weather your student lives ‘on or off campus’ and weather they live ‘in state or out of state’; insurance carriers in Colorado allow you keep your students auto on your family’s auto insurance policy if that student lived in your household prior to leaving for college. The auto policy assumes college students are ‘residents’ of the household so there is no need to purchase a separate auto insurance policy for your college student.
LIABILITY UMBRELLA INSURANCE
After you’ve verified you have the proper liability coverage for your student (i.e. with the purchase of renter’s insurance or adding the secondary residence to your home policy) make sure you add the college student’s new residence address to your liability umbrella policy (if you have one.) That way if someone gets injured in your students living quarters you will have additional liability coverage.
If you need more information Give Us a Call, we can assist in determining what coverage is best for your college student and how to protect the parent from a liability lawsuit.