It’s hard to imagine circumstances when you wouldn’t want to have coverage for your home and personal possessions – either in the form of homeowners or renters insurance. Losing your home or personal possessions is traumatic enough – some personal items are irreplaceable – without also having to worry about the financial consequences. Though there are many similarities between homeowner’s and renter’s insurance, I’m going to discuss homeowners insurance first.
Homeowners Insurance. A standard policy normally covers you for both damage to your property (structure and personal possessions) and any liability for injuries or damage you, your family or pets cause to others. It also provides funds for living expenses if you can’t live in your home while it’s being repaired or rebuilt after an insured incident. Structural damage may be caused by fire or storm and your policy should provide for full rebuilding costs. Many insurers have standard tables for calculating this, based on demolition and building cost per square foot – and they will usually amend this automatically each year. Note however that standard policies do not cover damage from natural flooding. Depending on the insurer, you can get separate coverage or have it added to your existing policy. As a rough guide, cover for possessions is generally around half the value of your structural coverage, though you may amend this if you think your personal items are worth significantly more or less.
It makes good sense to take a quick inventory of the value of your home contents. The policy covers you for damage or theft of items. It probably will have a limit on cover for valuable items though it’s possible to get additional cover for these through an endorsement called Scheduled Personal Property. Here are a few more tips and things worth knowing about insuring your possessions:
- You are normally covered for theft, loss or damage to these items when you’re away from home too.
- You should keep a list of serial numbers for electronics items that might be stolen.
- Taking photos of the contents of each room (and storing them away from the house) may be useful as a reminder or as proof of ownership in the event of a claim.
- If you buy an expensive new item for the home, you should notify your insurer so that it is added to your policy, if necessary.
- Cover can be for full, new, replacement cost or it may be reduced to take account of the age of the lost or damaged item.
Renters insurance provides more or less the same kind of cover for your personal possessions and personal liability as outlined above but because you don’t insure the structures at the home (your landlord should do that) premiums are lower. At Elzey Insurance, every one of policies comes with an agent! We would like to review your homeowners and renters insurance policies at no cost to you. Please click here for a no-obligation quote or call us at 1-866-660-6800.