Understanding Personal Property Coverage Limits

Your homeowners insurance policy includes coverage for your personal property, also known as Coverage C. This coverage provides protection for your personal belongings – essentially anything not permanently attached to your home. However, just as any other insurance coverage, there are limits to this protection. It’s imperative to understand your personal property coverage limits so you know what your insurer covers and what it won’t cover. And if you want more coverage than your standard homeowners policy provides, it’s good to know what options you have available. Let’s dive into personal property coverage and what its limits mean for your homeowners policy.

What is Personal Property Coverage?

Personal property coverage is the part of your homeowners insurance policy that covers your personal belongings, which can include your furniture, clothing, jewelry, and electronics. Essentially, this type of coverage insures everything inside your home that is not attached to the structure itself. Your home, attached structures, and detached structures (such as sheds or detached garages) receive coverage under Coverage A and Coverage B.

Standard home insurance policies include personal property coverage under Coverage C. What makes this coverage different for each homeowner is the amount of coverage you receive. Typically, your insurer will calculate this as a percentage of your dwelling coverage. You can easily find this number on your policy’s deck page. If you need assistance reading your homeowners insurance policy, check out our step-by-step guide on reading your policy.

What Are Personal Property Coverage Limits?

Limits on your personal property coverage refer to how much your insurance provider will pay out in the case of a covered loss. As the above section states, insurers typically calculate this as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, usually 40%-70%. For instance, say your dwelling coverage limit is $500,000 and your personal property coverage is set at 50%. This means your personal property coverage would cap at $250,000. However, if you file a personal property claim that totals out to $300,000, your insurer will only pay $250,000. The remaining $50,000 would need to come out of your pocket.

If you would like more coverage for your personal property, you are able to adjust the percentage to better fit your needs. Additionally, there are a few other ways to help cover your more expensive items that we will get into a bit later. 

Personal Property Sub-Limits

Sub-limits on your personal property coverage refer to personal belongings with different, explicitly stated limits. High-value items may have a specific limit listed under your homeowners policy – this is a sub-limit. Belongings that typically have specified sub-limits are:

• Jewelry
• Cash
• Silverware & goldware
• Furs
• Firearms
• Art & collectibles
• Property used primarily for business

For example, say you own a precious gold necklace. It could be one you inherit from a close relative, that has a value of $4,000. However, your homeowners policy states the sublimit for jewelry is $1,500. If the necklace is stolen, your insurance provider will only pay $1,500 to replace it. 

But worry not! If you own these high-ticket items and would like to insure them for more than the state sublimit in your policy, there are a few options you can look into.

Personal Property Insurance Riders

You can expand the amount of coverage your belongings receive by purchasing a rider, or endorsement, on your standard homeowners policy. An insurance rider, also known as a floater, is an add-on that helps extend insurance coverage to a specified item or part of your home. For example, you could purchase a water backup endorsement to help keep you covered in the instance water backs up into your home.

Scheduled Personal Property Coverage

Scheduling your personal property is a type of insurance rider that helps expand coverage on specified items. When you schedule an item, it increases the amount that your insurance covers it for. Take the previous example: your insurer may not cover the $4,000 necklace for its full value with a standard homeowners policy. However, when you schedule this item, you can increase that amount to its full replacement cash value, or how much the item is worth today.

Benefits of Scheduling Personal Property

There are quite a few benefits that come with scheduling your personal belongings:

• Extended Protection: Scheduling your personal property extends your insurance coverage on those items to either cover more than what your standard policy does, or cover the item for its full actual cash or replacement cash value, depending on what you prefer. 
• Lower Deductible: With scheduled personal property, you can avoid the larger deductible that comes with your standard homeowners policy. For example, if you were to file a claim with your standard homeowners policy for a stolen piece of jewelry, you would have to pay the deductible in order for your provider to pay the claim. However, with scheduled personal property, you could have a much lower deductible. 
• Peace of Mind: Sometimes, just knowing that your high-value belongings are covered is enough. The peace of mind that comes with this added protection can be enough to justify the extra cost, especially for those items that truly could never be replaced.

Get the Right Coverage with TGS Insurance

Every home is different, and the same goes for homeowners insurance policies. This means finding the amount of coverage that works best for your unique situation can be a pain. That’s why our team of dedicated agents are trained to help ease you through the insurance process, including determining what coverage works best for you! TGS Insurance is here to help you not only save on your homeowners insurance, but understand your coverage limits. We can even find insurance riders to help extend your coverage! Give one of our agents a call today to learn more about your coverage limits and how to extend coverage to your high-value belongings!

FAQs