Home Contents Insurance – Protecting Your Personal Property
An often overlooked part of home insurance is personal property. Personal property may include furniture, electronics, clothes, pots, pans and any number of other things scattered throughout your home. Following are tips on determining coverage for your personal property:
Determining Coverage for your Personal Property
Do You Know How Much Stuff You Have?
For many, gone are the days when moving meant packing everything you owned into three boxes and a burlap sack. Chances are you’ve got lots of stuff, much of which you can’t live without. Think of the rooms in your home and all that is in them. Think of all the stuff in the kitchen, bathrooms, storage closets and garage. Now think of how much you would lose if it were damaged or destroyed in a fire.
Take Inventory!
Start by taking pictures and/or video of the items in your home. Keep this information along with purchase receipts, serial numbers and any other relevant information that will help your insurance company value your personal property if it is damaged or stolen.
Review Your Limits
There is a separate limit for personal property under your home insurance. This limit may be a number i.e., $50,000) or a percentage of the limit of your home’s structure i.e., “50% of Coverage A”). If you suddenly realized that you own more stuff than you thought you had, consider raising your home insurance’s personal property limit.
Be Aware of Limitations
Many types of personal property may be covered, but there will be limitations. For example, items with significant value such as electronics, certain collectibles and jewelry may only be covered for a fraction of their actual value. It is important to understand these home insurance policy limits and how coverage for these items can be increased by an endorsement to the home insurance or via a separate policy.
Some personal property is mobile; often used away from the home i.e., a set of golf clubs). Many home insurance policies may limit losses to personal property that occur away from your home.
Now it’s time to research the best policy for you, start by getting your free insurance quotes today.
