Scheduled Property–-The Solution for Sublimits

Homeowner’s insurance covers your home, your liability, and your items in your home. However, having a standard homeowner’s policy does not necessarily mean all of your items are properly insured. Certain categories of items are subject to limitations by sublimits. This article will discuss how you can properly protect yourself by scheduling your property.

The Homeowner’s policy covers just about every piece of property inside your home. Most policies even cover items you’re storing for others. Most policies typically extend $1,000 of coverage for damages to other's property while you are away from home. One of the biggest pitfalls with the property coverage of a homeowner’s insurance policy, however, is its sublimits. All standard homeowner's policies have sublimits, which are limitations on your personal property limit, assigned by category. Though almost all kinds of property is covered, it is only covered up to the sublimit’s stated value. These limitations can create the need to schedule your property if they are worth more than the total of the sublimit.

Scheduling property is a fairly simple thing to do. At anytime, give your agent the type of property it is (E.g. Jewlery), a vivid description of the property (E.g. Women’s white-gold wedding ring, ½ kt. Princess-cut diamond with diamond paving), and the appraised value. Some categories of items don’t need a professional appraisal, but most companies will require a professional appraisal if the total value of an items is over a pre-determined threshold.

The cost to schedule property is very affordable. The typical item only costs about a dollar per $100 of value. For example, a guitar scheduled for $700 would only cost about $5 per year. The biggest problem with scheduling is getting the correct value, especially for jewelry. The price of precious gems and metals are continually increasing, so having an appraisal every year or two is vital. The $1000 wedding ring you bought in 1990 is definitely not worth only $1000 anymore. Also, the need for professional appraisals becomes increasingly vital as the value of the item goes up.

On the opposite side of things, depreciation drastically affects other categories of items, especially technology (E.g. The $2000 you spent on technology a few years ago may only be worth $400 now).  Some things can be easily appraised on your own using the internet, but professional appraisals are always the most accurate way to ensure you are setting limits properly. Appraising is usually a better option than paying too much for over-insured items as well.

By scheduling your high-worth items, you can bypass the sublimit’s limitations on coverage. Depending on your insurer, you can sometimes schedule your items for agreed value, instead of the actual cash value you would get if the item is only covered under the sublimit’s coverage. Scheduling property is one of the best ways to make sure you have your items properly insured come claim time.

Note from the Author (Nov. 14, 2014): After two years of work, we've entirely redesigned our website! Using SquareSpace, we were able to import this blog and we are continuing our blog there. To find the current version of this article and our new articles, click HERE.