Do you know about rental and/or homeowners insurance?

[citylove]

So, we had an accident unpacking our stuff from our vacation; the zipper on a backpack failed and DH's laptop ended up taking a 4 foot dive. It's very broken, but fixable. It's about 1150 to fix, and we're both hoping we can use our rental insurance to cover part of that, but I don't see an item that says "Your wife dropped it." Does anyone know if this kind of thing is usually covered? Or what category it may fall under? I don't want to call our agent until I have a clue what it might be covered under. Thanks for any ideas!

[camberne]

From my experience, that would fall under "abuse" and would not be covered under your insurance. But, you can always try! The only times that type of accident was ever covered by any of our stuff is when we bought insurance specifically for accidents such as dropping it through the store where we bought the equipment. We got that for my son's electronic stuff - cell phone, MP3, etc.

[thedoorchick]

It sounds from your comments like you have renter's insurance, so homeowner's insurance is not applicable. (the insurance the property owner has is for the building, not its contents).

I doubt a situation like this (negligence/abuse) would be covered, but the only way to know is to ask. Policies can be very different.

[ellidew]

It's not covered on your insurance policy unless you purchased some type of 'accidental breakage' coverage.

[Niobe]

How old is the laptop anyway? $1150 can buy you a good new laptop. That seems like a lot of money to spend repairing an old computer.

[citylove]

Thanks for your input. DH called it in today; we'll see what happens. I didn't see anything in our policy about "accidental damage," so I'm not feeling optimistic. I wish I had known such a thing existed as an extra product to buy; my nickname is "Destructor" around the house; I'm amazed I haven't destroyed anything before this. DH is feeling hopeful for some reason; I'll go with the optimism for now.

To answer Niobe's question, it's a $3000 laptop; DH is a photographer so it has to be top of the line.

Thanks for the input; I'll let you all know when we find out the details.