Detached Structures and Home Insurance

Home insurance provides financial protection against damage to your home caused by disasters and protects your possessions. Home insurance also protects you against liability and legal responsibility for injuries caused by your property and family. Typical standard homeowners insurance provides you four areas of coverage -- the structure of your house, your belongings, liability and expenses in case you are temporarily forced from your home because of an insured disaster.

Does home insurance cover detached structures?

The quick answer is most likely, but because every home insurance policy is different you should take the time and find out exactly what sort of coverage you have on a detached garage, shed or other building on your property. When you check into your home insurance policy and find out what protection your detached structures currently have you can expect to find ten percent coverage of your home’s coverage for detached buildings. If you have a $100,000 home insurance policy, your shed or detached garage is covered for $10,000.

This amount of insurance may be plenty for your detached building, but you should take stock of the value of the structure and what is stored inside your detached building. A simple tool shed with a small collection of lawn and gardening tools may be adequately covered by insurance provided by your home insurance policy. On the other hand, a detached garage with a brick exterior and a loft apartment on a second level might require quite a bit more coverage in terms of possessions in the building, and especially for replacement value in the event the garage is damaged by a storm or other event.

One other consideration to keep in mind with detached structures and home insurance is your home insurance policy will not cover the building if it is used for business purposes other than for parking business vehicles.

Did you know? Your home insurance provider might cover some business use of a detached structure if you contact them and request an endorsement to your policy.

Takeaways:

1. Most likely your home insurance offers ten percent of the amount covering your home to protect detached structures. $100,000 policy equals $10,000 in detached building coverage.
2. Business use of your detached structure will negate automatic coverage from your home insurance policy.
3. You want to make certain your detached structure is fully covered for the value of your possessions in the building and for replacement value of the structure.

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