Is My Fence Covered By My Home Insurance Policy?
Your home insurance policy’s coverage is split into several sections. These include coverage for your home itself and coverage for your personal belongings. But a standard homeowners insurance policy also includes coverage for other structures.
This coverage is often given a default coverage value set as a percentage of your home’s rebuild value. For example, many policies provide coverage for other structures at 10% of the home’s rebuild value, meaning coverage for other structures would be $30,000 if your home was insured for $300,000.
Coverage for other structures includes items such as fences, gazebos, sheds or detached workshops, playsets and more. Typically, the 10% default insurance coverage amount offers enough protection, but you also have the option to adjust this coverage amount if you need additional protection for other structures.
In most cases, your home insurance policy should offer ample coverage for your fence. One thing to consider, however, is how your fence came to be damaged if you are thinking of placing a claim.
A standard homeowners insurance policy does not cover damage due to wear and tear or the long-term effects of weather. Sudden weather events, on the other hand, are probably covered by your policy. For example, if a wind storm blew down a section of fencing, your policy would likely provide coverage. The same is true of sudden damage due to ice or snow or damage caused by falling objects, such as a tree limb.
There is another aspect of coverage to consider as well. In almost all cases, a homeowners insurance policy utilizes a deductible. The deductible is the part of the claim that you pay and helps keep coverage more affordable for all policyholders. It is not uncommon for homeowners insurance policies to require a deductible of $500, $1,000, or even more. After the deductible is deducted from your claim settlement amount, the settlement might not go very far toward getting your fence repaired. In some situations where damage was limited, the claim may not pay anything at all.
As another consideration, you may want to think about how making a claim can affect your future home insurance rates. Insurers often use past claim history as an indication of a future claims probability. This means someone with a prior claim history or a more active claim history may pay higher rates and if they’ve had multiple claims may have trouble obtaining insurance in the future. For home damage claims that can be repaired inexpensively, many homeowners choose to have the repair completed without placing an insurance claim.
In many ways, an insurance policy works more effectively as a way to protect yourself against larger financial losses. For smaller losses, it is often wiser to pay for repairs out of pocket and keep your powder dry just in case you have a really big loss. Most households can find a way to pay for a couple of sections of damaged fencing, whereas far fewer households can afford to replace an entire home damaged by a fire.
Home insurance works best when used to protect against large losses that can have a financial effect for years to come.