If you are moving into a new apartment with a new roommate, you should consider getting renter’s insurance. If you’ve never heard of renter’s insurance before, it is a handy tool that you can use to replace your belongings in the case of fire, theft or even if your roommate breaks something. There are, however, a few common misconceptions about renter’s insurance that we should take a look at first.

There are a few circumstances in which you may not need renter’s insurance that you should know about. In some cases, if your roommate already has renter’s insurance, you may not need to get your own policy, although it is absolutely vital that you check with the rental insurance company that holds the policy to make sure. You will need to document all of your belongings and add them to the policy as long as the two of you live together.

Another circumstance in which you may not need a policy is if your parents have a homeowners’ insurance policy that you are covered under. Again, it is dangerous to assume that you are automatically covered under this policy, so call ahead to verify.

If you do decide to get your own policy, make sure you accurately photograph and appraise all of your belongings that you will cover so that filing a claim can be done easily. Try to save receipts of your purchases so that you can prove the worth of the items you’ll claim, although in the case of a fire, that task is obviously very difficult.