What about cars? Are you going to share your beloved automobile? There’s no way you’d let one of your roommates drive your vehicle. That three-thousand-pound missile sitting out there in your assigned carport is your baby, and you wouldn’t want to be responsible for the injury or damage someone else does with your car.

Believe it or not, Oregon law allows all members of a single household (sharing a single address for the house or apartment) to drive any other member’s car at any time, without permission. Wait... what? Yes. That’s right. Your roommate can take your keys and get into your car if he has a valid license at any time and drive your vehicle, and you can’t do anything about it. That’s crazy talk. Right?

To protect the public, your policy covers any member of your household. This means that if they get in an accident, the insurance company is required to pay. So, yes, your roommate should be added and listed as an authorized driver, especially if you let your roomie “borrow” the car once in a while. The way around this is to have them excluded or declare them a non-driver, especially if they have a poor driving record. Be careful with this one. You cannot let them drive under any circumstances, and you’ve got to keep your keys hidden so they don’t “borrow” the car without your permission.

Listing roommates on your renter’s insurance

Landlords now request that all adult signers of a lease must be listed on a renter’s insurance policy. That can be a little difficult if the roommates sharing an apartment or house aren’t related by blood or marriage. Why would that matter? The language in most renter’s insurance contracts defines the insured as the person buying the policy and any family member related genetically or by marriage or legal guardianship. So, unless your roommate is a parent, child, or sibling, you must list them in order for the coverage to apply to their stuff.

How can they be listed? Some insurance companies will allow them to be registered as a second named insured, which means their name will appear right below yours on the policy. Others require them to be listed as an additional insured, where their name appears somewhere below in the body of the contract’s declaration page. Often, the insurance company will charge a little extra for the additional insured endorsement. The maximum number of second or additional insureds allowed on a renters policy is usually set at one. So, what happens when three or more decide to share an apartment? You might end up buying two policies to satisfy the landlord’s requirements.

Why can’t I just say my roommate’s stuff belongs to me if a fire or theft loss occurs? You could claim that, but the insurance company would assume that each member of the household has a minimum of his or her own possessions. No way are you sharing a toothbrush. They aren’t all yours. More importantly, what happens if it’s your roommate who starts a fire because he forgot to turn his floor heater off in his locked bedroom before he left for work and burned the entire four-unit apartment building to the ground? Besides losing his stuff, he would be liable for all the damage caused by his negligence. Yes, renter’s insurance policies pay for all the harm done to property and people.

Now that people are sharing the cost of housing more than ever before, things are getting a little more complicated. We can help you navigate over all the hurdles modern-day roommates face.