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Storage Insurance
Perhaps the wisest decision which a home owner can take for protecting his home and hearth is to insure all the contents of his home. While this is true while you are living in a particular home, how can you offer similar protection to your belongings once they are stored in a self-storage facility? With cost of homes and apartments going up throughout the country, more and more people are choosing smaller homes to live in. This naturally results in lack of adequate space for storing goods which are needed on special occasions or when they are needed during particular seasons. Examples could be winter clothes and accessories as well as items like Christmas tree etc. The concept of self-storage has also gained popularity because most people are trying to make the most of the small living spaces and make their homes as clutter-free as possible. While it is alright to store your goods in a conveniently located storage unit, you must never forget about insuring these goods, though they are out of sight.
Any reputed self-storage owner or a ware house facilitator will voluntarily offer short term insurance for your goods. This means that your goods are covered against any normal calamity for about 1 or 2 months. If your storage needs are only for such a short term, make sure that your goods are removed soon after completion of the contract period. It is quite possible that some or all of the stored goods are already covered under your existing home insurance policy. So, before buying any separate insurance policy from the store house owner, you must check with your existing insurance company whether the goods under storage are indeed covered by your home insurance policy. If it does, then there is no need to buy any other additional policy for stored goods.
While insuring your goods under storage, it is wise to check the type of coverage that you are going to receive. Will it cover some of the frequent natural calamities like fire, flood, hurricane or events like burglary and theft? If you have stored goods worth $1000 and your coverage is only 40% of the value of goods, then in case of a claim, you are going to get only $400. You must remember that more the insurance coverage, the more will be the amount of premium that you will have to pay. While there is no point in under-insuring your goods simply to reduce the premium amount, you must also not over-insure your goods. The other point which most forget about storage insurance is the expiry of their current home insurance policy. The worst thing that can happen to a home owner is that the stored goods suffer some kind of damage on a day, when the insurance policy has just expired. There are some insurance companies which offer insurance for ‘Goods in Motion’ or GIM. This policy covers all goods which are in transit from one city to another or one home to another.
With so many insurance companies operating in the market, getting the right kind of storage insurance might be a daunting task for many. Your best guide would be your existing insurance company, who should be able to offer their services and advice on any type of storage insurance – be it your domestic goods, office documents, car, bike or boat which you are thinking of storing.
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