According to the FBI, more than 2 million home burglaries occur in the U.S. each year. With so many home robberies occurring each year in America, homeowners should make sure to protect their property by purchasing homeowners insurance.
Thankfully, your standard homeowners insurance policy will protect your lost possessions if they're stolen, and you can get property damage covered if it was damaged as a result of a break-in, too. This is because theft is on of the named perils
on homeowners insurance policies. Here's what you need to know about burglary protection and theft on your home insurance policy, presented by Jerry
. Home insurance against theft and burglary
Homeowners insurance does cover theft. In addition, most policies provide protection from property damage to your home and surroundings and can reimburse you if someone steals your personal belongings from your property.
The theft portion of your home insurance coverage protects you in two ways, as detailed below.
Loss of possessions: Your home insurance policy covers you for any loss of possessions up to the limits of your policy.
Property damage: Your home insurance also pays to repair any damage to your property resulting from an attempted or actual break-in into your property. This includes damage to gates, doors, or windows that the thief breaks in an attempt to enter your home or other building on your property.
Limits to home insurance theft coverage
Even though a policy covers theft of your property, home insurance policies do have limits on what they cover. You can find these limits listed in the section below.
High-value items: Most home insurance policies have coverage limits. Most insurance companies limit cash reimbursement to around $200 of cash and only reimburse $2,000 on jewelry, minus any deductible you have on your policy. The deductible is the amount you must pay before insurance coverage kicks in.
Most often, with your deductible, it is not even worth filing a claim for stolen cash. A deductible of $500 would mean you actually couldn't even meet the threshold if all that was stolen was $200, the maximum amount many companies reimburse for stolen cash.
To truly protect highly valuable items like jewelry, works of art, and musical instruments, you should take out additional coverage for those specific items. Consider a valuable articles coverage add-on
. Auto theft: Your vehicle is another item not covered by a home insurance policy. Most car insurance comprehensive coverage
will cover you if your car is stolen. So, if someone breaks into your garage and steals your car, talk to your car insurance company.
Does home insurance cover theft outside the home?
Home insurance can also provide coverage for items stolen off of your property if you carry an Off-Premise Theft endorsement on your policy. So, if someone breaks into your car and steals something, then your home insurance would cover the loss and not your car insurance policy.
In addition to your vehicle, another common location covered by Off-Premise Theft coverage includes your hotel room while on vacation.
Discounts for theft-proofing your home
In addition to providing coverage for property damage and personal belongings lost due to theft, you can also get discounts for theft-proofing your home. Some theft-proofing measures include:
Deadbolts: Make sure your locks are ranked Grade 1 by the American National Standards Institute for the best protection.
Motion lights: Install motion lights
around the perimeter of your home to protect it from all angles. Security system: Use a home security company to monitor your alarm, or have the alarm connected to local police.
Properly protecting your home from theft requires you to install a security system and take other anti-theft measures. But, even with superior security measures in place, home invasions
can still occur. So make sure you have the proper amount of home insurance coverage to protect your property and personal belongings. For more valuable items, take out separate insurance to make sure you are fully covered for those more-expensive belongings. In addition, acquire Off-Premise Theft coverage to cover any personal belongings with you while you are away from home.
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