Your personal possessions, including money, household items, and things you take with you on travels, are mostly insured under your homeowners insurance policy. It doesn’t matter if they are sitting in a closet, worn on your body while you are elsewhere, or in your car. If they are stolen, you can make a claim against your homeowners insurance policy.
Your coverage even extends to your dependent children who are away from home living at college. However, if your college-bound child moves off campus and rents a home, a renters policy should be purchased to cover any possessions kept at that location.
You should check with your insurance proÂfessional to see if theft of personal possessions is reimbursed based on “actual cash value” or “replacement cost,” and discuss the implications for specific types of valuables you want insured.
If you have high-value items or watercraft, then you might have to list (or “schedule”) those possessions in an addendum to your homeowners policy. You may be required to get an official appraisal to verify the value of some of these items.
Lastly, if possessions are stolen from your car, you can submit a homeowners claim. Damage to the vehicle (or theft of the car) would fall under comprehensive coverage on an auto insurance policy, but your personal possessions in the car, wherever you are, would be addressed by your homeowners coverage.
