We live in a world where anything can happen, often when we least expect it and when we can least afford for it to occur. Life is a completely unpredictable maze of possibilities—some good and some not so good. Life’s surprises tend to affect us in ways we never imagined possible. You put a lot of effort into making your home a safe and comfortable place for your whole family. Insuring your home’s furniture is a simple yet crucial step in ensuring your home remains a home in the event of an emergency or catastrophe.
Insuring Furniture: A Simple Step Toward Peace of Mind
Most homeowners’ policies either provide an allotted amount for insuring furniture or offer an appraisal option. Choosing the appraisal option is usually a bit more expensive but well worth it. This means that if your entire house were to go up in flames, you would receive every penny of your furniture’s worth. Even those living in modest homes, with modest furniture they’ve collected over the years, may have several tens of thousands of dollars invested in their furniture. Think about it: While we don’t usually pay for all our furniture at once, imagine trying to replace every piece of furniture with one bank transaction. Most of us can’t.
Family heirlooms can never be replaced. Insurance companies don’t exactly make room for the emotional losses that certain furniture pieces represent in our lives. That very special chest you once thought held the magic of the world when you were a child, now sitting at the end of your bed, holds memories of a grandparent. Unfortunately, this piece is appraised at its value as furniture, not for the priceless memories it carries for you.
It has become common knowledge by now that flood insurance is not included in a regular homeowner’s policy. You don’t have to live next to a large body of water to be a flood victim. I’ve personally witnessed a seemingly harmless stream, barely running over my ankles, break its banks and travel uphill—greater than the length of a football field—engulfing my parents’ garage three days after it had stopped raining in rural Pennsylvania. Floods can occur in the most unlikely places, and they can wipe out an entire house full of furniture.
However, living next to a large body of water without flood insurance is more than just tempting fate. Every household along the Eastern seaboard, as well as those near the Pacific coast, the Mississippi River, the Colorado River, and various lakes, streams, reservoirs, and canals, should carry flood insurance. Ignoring this possibility is setting yourself up for a financial disaster on top of a natural one.
Homeowners’ policies can vary greatly from one company to another. While one policy may offer up to $50,000 for replacing furnishings, it may exclude things like man-made fire damage. This exclusion also rules out arson, whether you were the arsonist or an innocent victim. If you were the arsonist, you have much bigger problems than your furniture. If you were the victim, the insurance company likely won’t treat you any differently. In other words, read the fine print—carefully.
Understanding the Fine Print of Your Policy
Before signing a policy, ask direct questions and ask them in various ways. Insuring your home’s furniture isn’t just about making a sale to you—it might be to your insurance agent. Don’t simply ask if the policy covers extensive water damage; ask what type of water damage is not covered. Insurance company salespeople are allowed to be vague when signing you up for a policy, but they are not permitted to lie. After asking your questions, read the fine print again.
Renter’s insurance works much like a homeowner’s policy, offering various types of coverage for different conditions, hazards, and amounts. If you live in a building shared by more than one family, be sure your policy covers incidents of intentional and unintentional damage caused by those outside your home. Losing a great outdoor living room set on the porch because your neighbor in the same duplex had a massive drunken temper tantrum would be, at the very least, a bit silly. Unfortunately, things like this happen. They happen because we live with other human beings, and people don’t always act right.
Some renter’s insurance policies cover flood damage. However, this often refers to water damage caused by an upstairs apartment’s leak or negligent roof upkeep, rather than floods caused by weather events. Take time to discern the language, especially in this case. Remember, many victims of Hurricane Katrina had ample insurance, but insurance companies found ways to avoid paying for the damage by citing various reasons for the flooding.
Whether you’re looking into renter’s insurance or homeowner’s insurance, the most important aspect of insuring your home’s furniture is understanding the policy fully and shopping around for one that covers as many different scenarios as possible.
