Home Inventory for Renters: Why Your Landlord's Insurance Is Not Yours
Updated July 16, 2026
There is a comfortable assumption a lot of renters make: the flat is insured, so the stuff in it must be covered too. It is not. Your landlord's policy protects the building — the walls, the roof, the boiler. Everything you carried through the front door is yours to insure, and yours to prove. The good news is that renters have a real advantage here: fewer things, and a much shorter path to a complete inventory.
What your landlord's insurance actually covers
Their policy covers their asset: the structure, and usually anything they supplied — the fitted kitchen, the white goods that came with the place, the furniture in a furnished let. It does not cover your laptop, your clothes, your bike, or your television. If the flat floods, the landlord's insurer handles the flat. Yours handles your things, assuming you have a policy and can prove what was in the room.
Your belongings are worth more than you think
The instinct is that renters do not own much worth insuring. Then you add it up. A laptop, a phone, a television, a bike, headphones, a games console, kitchen equipment, and a wardrobe of clothes will comfortably clear several thousand — and that is before anything expensive or sentimental. The number surprises almost everyone who sits down and totals it honestly, which is itself a good reason to do it.
What to catalogue first
- Electronics — laptop, phone, television, console, headphones
- Anything with wheels — bike, scooter
- Kitchen equipment you actually bought yourself
- Instruments, cameras, tools, sports gear
- The expensive-but-boring: mattress, desk chair, monitor
The advantage renters have
A homeowner cataloguing thirty years of accumulation faces a genuinely daunting job. You probably do not. If you have moved in the last few years, you have already handled every single thing you own and put it in a box — which means your inventory is a weekend at most, and realistically an evening. It also means you are far more likely to actually finish it.
Do it when you move in
The best moment is while you are unpacking, because you are touching everything anyway. Photograph things as they come out of boxes. It costs a few extra seconds per item and it produces a complete, dated record of what you own at the moment you moved in — which is exactly what you want if anything happens later, and it doubles as a record of the flat's condition on day one.
The deposit angle
There is a second use for all this that has nothing to do with theft or fire. Photographs of your possessions and the flat's condition when you moved in are useful when you move out and someone is deciding what to deduct from your deposit. A dated photo is a much better argument than a memory of how the carpet looked two years ago.
Doing it with Stowly
Stowly is free for unlimited items and rooms, which matters when you are cataloguing a flat rather than a house — you will not run out of anything. Photograph things as you unpack, note what they cost, and it keeps track of warranties on the electronics you care about. It runs in any browser, so your phone is enough, and there is nothing to install. If you later want receipts attached to your valuables or an insurance-ready PDF to hand your insurer, that comes with Plus.
Frequently asked questions
Do I really need contents insurance as a renter? That is your call — but the question is whether you could afford to replace everything you own at once. The inventory is what tells you honestly what "everything" adds up to.
What if my flat came furnished? Catalogue what is yours. The landlord's sofa is their problem; your things are the ones you would have to replace. It is also worth photographing the supplied furniture's condition when you move in, for the deposit conversation later.
Is it worth doing if I move every year? More so, not less. You are handling everything you own each time you move anyway, and a current inventory makes each move easier — you know what you have, and what made it to the other end.