A standard home insurance policy covers your home's structure and the contents of it. It provides a specific amount of protection for the value of your personal belongings. Items such as electronics are a part of this protection if a covered incident occurs.
What you may not know is how you can benefit from a home insurance policy if an incident occurs. Here are a few questions to ask.
Is The Incident A Covered Peril?
Home insurance covers most types of unexpected and accidental incidents. If you push your TV and it breaks, your coverage does not apply. If someone takes the TV from your home in a documented break-in or the TV has damage from a vandalism event, your policy may offer coverage. Most of the time, electronics are covered in instances of fire, theft, vandalism and storms. Other damaging incidents might also have coverage.
What Type Of Electronics Apply?
Most of the time, your home insurance policy provides coverage if you can prove you owned an item. For example, if you claim someone stole your $5,000 laptop, but cannot provide a receipt for it, you may have limitations on your coverage. On the other hand, if you have proof of purchase for your items of value — such as televisions, computer systems, expensive gaming systems, home security systems and other items — it may help you replace them.
How Much Is Your Item Worth?
Another factor to consider is the value of these items. Most contents insurance policies provide coverage up to a set minimum per item. For example, they may not cover items outright over the value of $1,000. There is also a total limit applicable. According to the Insurance Information Institute, some companies cover between 50 and 70 percent of your personal belongings in value – a percentage of the total amount of coverage you have for the structure.
If you have an item of high worth, you may be able to protect it with an endorsement on that item. For example, you can insure that laptop on your home insurance policy as an add-on or endorsement. This helps the agency to know of the value and helps protect your valuables that are worth more than the limits of the plan.
Home insurance can help you in these situations. Speak to your Augustine Insurance Group agent if an event like this occurs. Discuss what happened and the value at length to file a claim.
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