Insurance During a Move
I’m learning all kinds of marginally-useful stuff since we’re selling one house, buying another in a different state, and moving all of our stuff there. It’s that last one I’m going to write about in this post. Specifically, I’m going to tell you what you need to know about making sure your possessions are properly insured during a move.
Insurance during our move was one among the 1,237 things to think about during a move that I didn’t think about. Besides the fact that insurance in general is about as exciting as watching geriatric water ballet, it’s often byzantine in its details. So here’s what I’ve learned.
Your possessions are most likely not covered during transit by your homeowners insurance. This makes sense if you think about it. You aren’t insuring your old place any more. The stuff isn’t actually located in either house. For a short period of time, it’s quite possible you don’t actually own a house at all if you haven’t closed on the new house prior to closing on the old.
The mover is only responsible for certain situations and only up to a point. The standard amount a mover is on the hook for is $0.60 per pound (it’s called ‘valuation’). Except for your angelfood cake collection, nothing you own can be replaced at sixty cents on the pound. Besides that, the liability of the mover is limited to certain situations. For example, if the truck is broken into, you may not be covered at all.
In many cases, you need to buy third-party moving insurance. Often the mover will offer this through a third party, but pay attention to cost and exclusions. Your homeowners insurance company may very well offer to sell you an inexpensive policy to cover the gap between house coverages. Make sure you get replacement cost coverage if at all possible.
So before a move, do some homework and find out if your insurance covers your stuff during a move and, if so, how well. It might make the difference between a minor inconvenience and an unmitigated disaster.
Additional resources:
Bankrate article on moving insurance
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 am
movers also provided replacement cost, but you normally have to ask them since the default is depreciated value.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:26 pm
It’s always interesting to me how often we think we are insured when we really aren’t. I work alongside some P & C guys and their company just came out with some new type of marketing that makes sure people are covered for all the things they want to be covered for. I guess a lot of people have gaps in their coverage that they don’t realize. This looks like it’s also one of those unexpected gaps.