Personal property off premises
Do you remember when you bought your first house? You moved all your stuff in, looked around and wondered how you’d ever fill up that home with furniture, decorative items or anything else?! Well if you’re like most people, it didn’t take long and you were running out of room for all your stuff. If you didn’t have a garage sale or haul it off to Goodwill, you rented a storage facility to give yourself some extra room until you could decide what to do with it.
What you may not have realized when you signed the rental agreement was that your stuff may be protected against loss by your home policy. Most home policies not only cover the things we have in our homes, but extend some level of coverage to those items we take out of our home on a temporary basis. The coverage is called personal property off premises.
This coverage is usually capped at 10% of total personal property or contents coverage. Examples of what is covered with this protection are;
- Moving items into a storage facility
- Furniture that may be sent to be re-upholstered or refinished
- Items left in your car on a trip, driving around town, at the office, etc.
In these cases, it’s important to know;
- What’s covered
- How much coverage is needed
- Are there any limitations on that coverage
- What’s the deductible
I had a client who took a vacation to the Hill Country in Texas several years ago with his wife. Their car was broken into and his golf clubs were taken. If he’d proceeded with a claim, his golf clubs would have been covered under his homeowner’s policy. The only issue was that the value of the clubs was still less than the deductible on his home policy so he did not pursue that.
If you’re not sure what coverage you need for items in storage (you probably don’t need the rental unit’s insurance) call, email, tweet or leave me a question on Facebook. I’m happy to review that with you.
