Renters insurance covers your belongings, extra living costs, personal liability, and medical payments in a home you rent. The California Department of Insurance calls it tenant's insurance, and its January 13, 2025 residential fact sheet names that form HO-4.
The CDI residential guide, updated May 21, 2024, lists Coverage C for personal property in an amount you choose, subject to the insurer's minimum; Coverage D, loss of use, at 20 percent of Coverage C; Coverage E, personal liability, generally at a minimum of $100,000; and Coverage F, medical payments to others, generally at a minimum of $1,000. Earthquake, flood, and earth movement are usual exclusions. An insurer that writes the residential policy must offer earthquake coverage, which may be placed through the California Earthquake Authority. The CDI earthquake page says a standard renters policy does not pay for earthquake damage, and that California law still requires the renters policy to cover fire an earthquake causes or that follows one. The landlord's policy does not insure the tenant's belongings.
At a rented home in Stockton
The longer guide is California renters insurance. Spanish: seguro de inquilino (HO-4). Index: insurance glossary.
Sources, checked October 5, 2026: CDI residential guide, CDI earthquake insurance, and the CDI fact sheet published January 13, 2025 (footnote naming renters as HO-4).