Renters Insurance Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Minnesota law says, what's specific to Minneapolis - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- No state requirement appears in our reading of Minnesota Statutes chapter 504B. A text search of the chapter for "insurance" returned two passages, on entry to show a unit to an insurance representative and on a court-appointed administrator paying a building's insurance, and neither concerns a tenant's policy.
- § 504B.120 says "A landlord must disclose all nonoptional fees in the lease agreement", with rent and those fees listed as the Total Monthly Payment on the first page. A violation costs treble damages. The section speaks of fees and does not name insurance.
- § 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) says the parties to a residential lease "may not waive or modify" the landlord's covenants of fitness and reasonable repair. Subdivision 5 says nothing in the section alters the landlord's liability for injury to third parties.
- Damage a tenant causes is answered by the deposit under § 504B.178, ordinary wear and tear excepted, and by a suit under § 504B.165 for willful and malicious destruction. A lease cannot waive either, and § 504B.172 gives a tenant who prevails the same attorney fee right the lease gives the landlord.
- Our reading of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances finds no tenant insurance rule. The $300,000 liability minimum in § 244.1845 binds owners of short-term rental units, not tenants.
Understanding the Renters Insurance Clause
A renters insurance clause can ask two different things of you. It can ask you to insure your own belongings, and it can ask you to carry risks the landlord would otherwise carry. Minnesota's statute speaks to the second, though not by name.
Our reading of Minnesota Statutes chapter 504B, the full chapter in the 2025 edition, finds no section that requires renters insurance or names a coverage amount. Our reading of the Minneapolis code finds no tenant rule either, which leaves the lease as the source of any figure.
What the chapter does reach is the money and the duties around the clause. § 504B.120 requires nonoptional fees to be disclosed in the lease and summed as the Total Monthly Payment on its first page. § 504B.161 keeps the landlord's repair covenants out of reach of any lease term, and § 504B.172 makes a one-way attorney fee clause run both ways.
What renters assume
Once a lease makes you carry renters insurance, you have taken over the landlord's risks, including repairs and injuries to other people.
What is actually true
§ 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) says the parties to a residential lease "may not waive or modify" the landlord's covenants of fitness and reasonable repair. Subdivision 5 adds that "Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the liability of the landlord or licensor of residential premises for injury to third parties." A policy you buy covers what the policy says; the covenants stay with the landlord.
The comparison further down this page has 21 rows. Eleven are drawn at $100,000, and ten have no bar. Minneapolis's row reads No state requirement, a label it shares with Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas, Newark and Detroit.
Among the eleven bars, Los Angeles reads $100,000 (statutory) and Portland reads $100,000 cap. The other four empty rows carry a reason in the label: Washington for liability waivers, Columbus for the lease, Charlotte for the tenant's choice of carrier and Baltimore for indemnity clauses.
Minnesota's rules on this clause sit where no bar can reach. A bar cannot show the Total Monthly Payment that § 504B.120 puts on a lease's first page, the treble damages for leaving a nonoptional fee out, or the repair covenants § 504B.161 says no lease may waive.
Plain English Version
If your Minneapolis lease tells you to carry renters insurance, the lease is where that demand and its amount come from: our reading of Minnesota's chapter 504B and the city code finds neither. State law reaches the money and rights around the clause.
Required fees belong in the Total Monthly Payment on the lease's first page, the landlord's repair duties cannot be signed away, and if the lease lets the landlord recover attorney fees, you get the same right when you win.
Renters Insurance Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Minneapolis, MN
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
7. Insurance. [The Riggses are] responsible for obtaining fire and extended coverage, including public liability[ ] insurance with [the Harkers] to be listed as an additional insured under the policy. [The Riggses] shall also be responsible for renter's coverage on [the Riggses'] own personal property located on the Leased Premises. [The Riggses] shall indemnify and hold [the Harkers] harmless from all claims of thi9rd [sic] parties for bodily injury, property damage or death arising from [the Riggses'] use or occupancy of the Leased Premises.
Quoted from the published opinion in Hoosier Insurance Co. v. Riggs, 92 N.E.3d 685 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“responsible for obtaining fire and extended coverage”
Fire cover on the building is where this paragraph reaches past your belongings. Minnesota answers it with duties a lease cannot move rather than with an insurance rule. § 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) says the parties to a residential lease “may not waive or modify” the landlord's covenants, which include keeping the premises fit for their intended use and in reasonable repair. A policy in your name does not take those covenants off the landlord.
“responsible for renter's coverage on”
Coverage on your own things is the plain half of the paragraph, and the amount is the lease's to state: our reading of chapter 504B and the Minneapolis code finds no coverage figure. The money around it has a Minnesota rule. § 504B.120 says “A landlord must disclose all nonoptional fees in the lease agreement”, with rent and those fees listed as the Total Monthly Payment on the first page.
“[the Harkers] harmless from all claims of”
A hold-harmless promise moves claims other people bring, and Minnesota's repair section has a sentence on that ground. § 504B.161, subdivision 5 provides that “Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the liability of the landlord or licensor of residential premises for injury to third parties.” Our Minnesota record does not reach indemnity clauses as such, so read this one against the whole lease and the current statute.
“bodily injury, property damage or death arising”
The property damage in this list has its own Minnesota routes, and neither depends on whose insurer pays. § 504B.178, subdivision 3(b) lets a landlord withhold from the deposit amounts reasonably necessary “to restore the premises to their condition at the commencement of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted”, and subdivision 10 voids any waiver of that section.
The insurer's claim survived. Nobody was held liable. The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a Rule 12(B)(6) dismissal and sent the case back. Under Indiana's case-by-case approach this insurance paragraph has to be construed to work out who the parties intended to bear the risk of fire loss, which means the landlord's insurer could be a real party in interest entitled to sue the tenants in subrogation. The rule it leaned on is worth reading twice: “if a lease obligates a tenant to procure insurance covering a particular type of loss, such a provision will provide evidence that the parties reasonably anticipated that the tenant would be liable for that particular loss, which would allow an [ ] insurer who pays the loss to bring a subrogation action against the tenant.” The case was remanded for the trial court to read the lease and weigh the equities. So the clause was enough to keep the subrogation claim alive - it did not decide it, and no renter should read this as a ruling that the tenants owed the money.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Minnesota Law on Renters Insurance Clause
- Money a lease requires has to be disclosed up front. Section 504B.120, subdivision 1 says "A landlord must disclose all nonoptional fees in the lease agreement" and that the sum of rent and all nonoptional fees "must be described as the Total Monthly Payment and be listed on the first page of the lease." Subdivision 2 makes a landlord who violates the section liable for treble damages, and the court may award attorney fees. The section speaks of fees and does not name insurance. Minnesota Laws 2023, chapter 52, article 19, section 90 applies it to leases signed on or after January 1, 2024.
- A lease cannot trade away the landlord's repair and habitability duties. Section 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) says "The parties to a lease or license of residential premises may not waive or modify the covenants imposed by this section", which include keeping the premises fit for their intended use and in reasonable repair. Subdivision 5 provides that "Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the liability of the landlord or licensor of residential premises for injury to third parties."
- Tenant-caused damage is answered by the deposit and by suit, under rules the lease cannot waive. Section 504B.178, subdivision 3(b) lets a landlord withhold from the deposit amounts reasonably necessary "to restore the premises to their condition at the commencement of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted", and subdivision 10 voids any waiver of that section. Section 504B.165 lets either side sue for "willful and malicious destruction of leased residential rental property" and recover actual damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees, and voids any lease provision by which a tenant waives it.
- If a lease lets the landlord recover attorney fees, the tenant gets the same right. Section 504B.172 provides that where a residential lease lets a landlord recover attorney fees in an action between landlord and tenant, "the tenant is entitled to attorney fees if the tenant prevails in the same type of action, under the same circumstances", and to the same extent the lease specifies for the landlord.
Sources include Minn. Stat. § 504B.120; Minn. Stat. § 504B.161; Minn. Stat. § 504B.178; Minn. Stat. § 504B.165; Minn. Stat. § 504B.172; Minneapolis Code of Ordinances § 244.1845; Minneapolis Code of Ordinances § 248.210 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Start with the scope. Our reading of Minnesota Statutes chapter 504B, the full chapter in the 2025 edition, finds no section that requires a tenant to carry renters insurance or names a liability coverage amount.
A text search of the chapter for "insurance" returned two passages. One lets a landlord enter to show a unit to an insurance representative, and the other lets a court-appointed administrator pay a building's insurance. Neither concerns a tenant's policy.
The money rule sits in § 504B.120. Subdivision 1 says "A landlord must disclose all nonoptional fees in the lease agreement", and that the sum of rent and all nonoptional fees "must be described as the Total Monthly Payment and be listed on the first page of the lease."
Under subdivision 2, a landlord who violates the section is liable for treble damages, and the court may award attorney fees. It applies to leases signed on or after January 1, 2024.
The section speaks of fees and does not name insurance, and our record does not answer whether a required policy counts as a nonoptional fee.
The duties a policy cannot shift sit in § 504B.161. Subdivision 1(b) says "The parties to a lease or license of residential premises may not waive or modify the covenants imposed by this section", which include keeping the premises fit for their intended use and in reasonable repair.
Subdivision 5 provides that "Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the liability of the landlord or licensor of residential premises for injury to third parties." Read it beside any lease sentence that moves third-party claims onto you.
Damage you cause has its own routes. § 504B.178, subdivision 3(b) lets a landlord withhold from the deposit amounts reasonably necessary "to restore the premises to their condition at the commencement of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted", and subdivision 10 voids any waiver of that section.
§ 504B.165 lets either side sue for "willful and malicious destruction of leased residential rental property" and recover actual damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees, and voids any lease provision by which a tenant waives it.
Fees in court run both ways. Under § 504B.172, where a lease lets a landlord recover attorney fees, "the tenant is entitled to attorney fees if the tenant prevails in the same type of action, under the same circumstances".
Minnesota Tenant Protections
Our reading of Minnesota Statutes chapter 504B finds no section that requires a tenant to carry renters insurance or names a liability coverage amount, and our reading of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances finds no tenant insurance rule.
Minn. Stat. § 504B.120 requires a landlord to disclose all nonoptional fees in the lease and to list rent plus those fees as the Total Monthly Payment on the first page, for leases signed on or after January 1, 2024. A violation makes the landlord liable for treble damages, and the court may award attorney fees; the section does not name insurance.
Section 504B.161 bars the parties from waiving or modifying the landlord's covenants of fitness and reasonable repair, and says nothing in it alters the landlord's liability for injury to third parties. Section 504B.178 limits deposit deductions for damage to restoring the premises, ordinary wear and tear excepted, and voids any waiver.
Section 504B.165 lets either side sue for willful and malicious destruction and recover actual damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees, and voids a lease waiver of it.
Under § 504B.172, where a lease lets the landlord recover attorney fees, a tenant who prevails in the same type of action gets the same right. In Minneapolis, the $300,000 liability minimum in § 244.1845 binds owners of short-term rental units, not tenants.
What's Specific to Minneapolis
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Our reading of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances finds no requirement that a residential tenant carry insurance and no coverage figure for tenants. Municode text searches of the code for "renters insurance", "renter's insurance" and "tenant insurance" returned no results, and the ordinance bank returned none for "renters insurance".
We read Title 12, the Housing title, in full, all 340 entries. The insurance minimums it does contain are for owners and licensees rather than tenants, and they are easy to misread on a quick search.
§ 244.1845 requires the owner of a registered or licensed short-term rental dwelling unit to "maintain liability insurance appropriate to cover the short-term rental use in the aggregate of not less than three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00)". The owner may instead book through a platform that provides equal or greater coverage.
That figure is written for the owner's short-term rental use. § 248.210 sets insurance minimums for truth-in-sale of housing evaluators, the people licensed to evaluate homes for sale. Neither section is a lease term or a rule about a tenant's policy.
If a Minneapolis lease or addendum credits its coverage requirement to the city, ask which section it means, and compare the answer with what that section says and whom it binds.
Where our reading of the city code is silent, the state sections are what our record carries for a Minneapolis renter. § 504B.120 puts nonoptional fees in the Total Monthly Payment on page one, § 504B.161 keeps the repair covenants out of any waiver, and § 504B.172 gives you the attorney fee right the lease gives the landlord.
If something in a Minneapolis unit is damaged, the state routes do not depend on whose policy pays. The landlord may withhold amounts reasonably necessary to restore the premises, ordinary wear and tear excepted, under § 504B.178.
A claim for willful and malicious destruction goes to court under § 504B.165, with actual damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees for the party who prevails, and a lease cannot waive either.
A workable order before you sign runs like this. Find the Total Monthly Payment on the first page, then the insurance paragraph, and read the sentences about your belongings apart from the sentences about the landlord's liability. Then check any attorney fee clause against § 504B.172.
We read the code on Municode in the copy codified through Ordinance No. 2026-020, adopted June 25, 2026, and the three ordinances listed there as adopted but not yet codified do not mention insurance. Confirm the current code before relying on the absence of a city rule.
Then you know what the lease asks. Our reading of chapter 504B and the Minneapolis code finds no coverage figure, which leaves the lease as the place that number is fixed.
§ 504B.120 requires rent plus all nonoptional fees to be described as the Total Monthly Payment on page one, for leases signed on or after January 1, 2024.
§ 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) says the parties to a residential lease "may not waive or modify" the covenants of fitness and reasonable repair.
§ 504B.172 gives a tenant who prevails in the same type of action the same attorney fee right, to the same extent the lease specifies for the landlord.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Minn. Stat. § 504B.120; Minn. Stat. § 504B.161; Minn. Stat. § 504B.178; Minn. Stat. § 504B.165; Minn. Stat. § 504B.172; Minneapolis Code of Ordinances § 244.1845; Minneapolis Code of Ordinances § 248.210, read on revisor.mn.gov. Read on the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes site in the 2025 Minnesota Statutes, whose chapter page lists the 2026 session laws affecting chapter 504B and shows none amending the sections cited here; the Minneapolis sections were read on Municode in the copy codified through Ordinance No. 2026-020, adopted June 25, 2026.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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A coverage figure credited to Minnesota law
Our reading of chapter 504B finds no coverage figure a lease may demand. A clause that attributes its number to state law should name the section it means.
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A nonoptional fee left off page one
§ 504B.120 requires all nonoptional fees in the lease and in the Total Monthly Payment on the first page. A violation costs the landlord treble damages.
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A clause moving repairs onto the tenant
§ 504B.161 bars waiving or modifying the landlord's covenants of fitness and reasonable repair, whatever an insurance paragraph says about who covers a loss.
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A waiver of damage claims
§ 504B.165 voids a lease provision waiving the right to sue for willful and malicious destruction, and § 504B.178, subdivision 10 voids any waiver of the deposit rules.
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A city figure borrowed from short-term rentals
The $300,000 minimum in § 244.1845 binds owners of registered or licensed short-term rental units. It is not a coverage figure for a tenant's policy.
Your Rights as a Minneapolis Tenant
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Repair covenants no lease can waive
§ 504B.161, subdivision 1(b) bars the parties from waiving or modifying the landlord's covenants of fitness and reasonable repair.
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Required fees on the first page
§ 504B.120 requires nonoptional fees in the lease and in the Total Monthly Payment, with treble damages for a violation.
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The same attorney fee right
§ 504B.172 gives a tenant who prevails the attorney fees the lease lets the landlord recover, in the same type of action.
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Damage claims under fixed rules
§ 504B.178 limits deposit deductions to restoring the unit, ordinary wear and tear excepted, and § 504B.165 governs suits for willful and malicious destruction.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the amount and its stated source
Copy out the coverage figure and any law the clause credits for it. Our reading of chapter 504B and the Minneapolis code finds no figure, so a clause citing one should name its section.
Check the first page
Find the Total Monthly Payment § 504B.120 requires and see which charges it lists. If a coverage charge is billed to you by the landlord, ask in writing how it is counted.
Separate your belongings from the landlord's risks
Read the sentences about your own property apart from those about the landlord's liability. § 504B.161 keeps the repair covenants with the landlord and leaves its liability for injury to third parties where it was.
Read any attorney fee clause twice
If the lease lets the landlord recover attorney fees, § 504B.172 gives you the same right when you prevail in the same type of action.
Photograph the unit at both ends
§ 504B.178 lets a deposit cover restoring the premises, ordinary wear and tear excepted, so dated photographs of every room are what a damage claim is measured against.
Put objections in writing
Name the clause and the section you rely on, and keep the lease, your policy and every letter together. § 504B.120 allows treble damages and attorney fees for a fee violation, and a legal aid office is the next call.