Home Insurance Articles

What Is Scheduled Personal Property Coverage And Should You Add It To Your Home Insurance Policy

2010-01-23

Homeowner's insurance policies cover damage to your home and personal property. Unfortunately, the standard policy does not cover all types of property and sets limits on the amounts it will pay for some types of losses. This presents a problem for those with valuable property that they want to insure. Insurers have solved this problem by offering the Scheduled Personal Property endorsement. The endorsement can be added to your Homeowner's insurance coverage, providing you extra coverage for items you specifically list. If you have any valuable items, you should get them scheduled on this type of endorsement.

Scheduled items are covered on a replacement cost basis, rather than cash value. The standard homeowner's policy covers losses to personal property on an actual cash value basis. They come to this value by taking the cost to replace an item and subtracting depreciation for each year of the article's age. With replacement cost, you get the real cost to replace the damaged or lost item, based on the appraisal you submitted when you scheduled the item, or based on a new appraisal you obtain after the incident.

Scheduled property is also covered for more causes of loss. On the standard policy, personal property is usually covered for the perils of windstorm, lightning, hail, fire or explosion. No other causes of loss are covered. Only those with an HO-5 homeowner's insurance policy will have broad form coverage for both the home and personal property. On broad form coverage, all causes of loss are covered except those specifically excluded in the exclusion section of the policy. By scheduling your valuable property, you gain coverage for almost anything that might happen. Even if you just lose a set of earrings, you can put in a claim. Deductibles don't apply to scheduled property either. This makes it easy to replace your most valuable items because you need not worry about coming up with the money to cover your deductible.

You should be aware of the limitations placed on Scheduled Personal Property too. Most insurance companies set limits on scheduled personal property coverage. They may let you insure your personal property up to a limit of $25,000. Any items you own above that value would have to be insured separately. Policies can also set per-item limits that might also force you to seek out additional insurance coverage.

To schedule your valuable property, you will need to obtain an appraisal from an expert. This may be a jeweler or a rare coin dealer. You will submit the appraisal to the insurance company with your request to have the item scheduled on the policy. Your insurance company must agree to the value before they will endorse the item.