Home Home insurance Claims Does homeowners insurance cover storage units? Does homeowners insurance cover storage units? Homeowners insurance covers personal property in a storage unit up to a limit. For all of your belongings to be fully covered, you may need to get additional coverage. View Carriers Please enter valid zip Compare top carriers in your area Written by Lena Borrelli Lena Borrelli Lena Borrelli is a freelance writer from sunny Tampa Bay who has worked with such leading industry titans as Gronk Fitness, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Simon Corporation. Her work has most recently been published on sites like TIME, Microsoft News, Bankrate, Investopedia, Fiscal Tiger, The Simple Dollar, ADT and Home Advisor. Reviewed by Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir is a content editor and licensed life, health, and disability insurance expert. She has extensive experience bringing brands to life and has built award-nominated campaigns for travel and tech. Her insurance expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Financial Gym, and the end-of-life planning service. Updated on: May 9, 2024 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry. If you need to store some of your belongings in a storage unit, your homeowners insurance will provide some coverage. Home insurance covers personal property off premises at 10% of the total personal property coverage on your policy. There are limits on the coverage provided by home insurance for a storage unit, so you may need to consider buying additional storage unit insurance. Consider the value of the items you’re putting and storage and read the fine print on your home insurance policy to determine whether you need additional insurance. Key Takeaways Homeowners insurance covers items in a storage unit; the off-premises limit is usually 10% of your personal property coverage. There are special limits on certain types of personal property, including jewelry and art. You may need additional storage unit insurance to fully protect your belongings. What is storage unit insurance? Storage unit insurance covers the belongings inside your storage unit. When you rent or lease a storage unit, it is important to ensure that your belongings are protected. It is likely that you already have coverage if you have homeowners insurance or renters insurance. However, it is possible to buy a standalone policy if you do not already have coverage. How homeowners insurance provides storage unit coverage Home insurance includes personal property coverage that protects your belongings no matter where they are. Many policies include language that provides protection for property stored off-premises and outside of the home and a storage unit usually qualifies. “You may be able to buy a special policy that covers items in a storage unit, and you want to make sure that the coverage is broad enough to cover what might happen, like theft or weather-related events. Most of these facilities will make you sign a waiver acknowledging they won’t be responsible if your stuff gets damaged,” says Amy Bach, Executive Director of United Policyholders, a consumer group. Coverage limits on off-premises contents The amount of coverage you receive for off-premises contents in storage depends on your policy. Most policies cover personal property off-premises at 10% of the total personal property coverage on the policy. You may have the option to increase coverage as needed. Make sure you know the value of the items in your storage unit to determine if you have enough coverage. “[Many] insurers typically limit the off-premises coverage for possessions to 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall amount of coverage that they have, so it’s wise to double-check with your insurance company,” says Bach. Coverage limitations for perils Home insurance covers personal property for a specific list of perils, but may not cover every possible type of damage. To expand coverage, many storage units will give you the option to purchase coverage for your storage unit. It may be a facility requirement before you are allowed to move your belongings into the unit. Coverage is typically provided either in-house or through a third party, but review the agreement carefully as coverage limits and restrictions will likely apply. Special limitations for high-value items High-value items should always be kept in the home whenever possible to keep them safe. However, if you do decide to store them off-site, it is important to know that high-value items, such as jewelry, antiques, collectibles and art, may all require additional coverage beyond what the standard policy provides. A personal property endorsement offers a solution by providing the extra coverage you need for these more expensive items. “Homeowner policies also have internal caps. They might have a cap of $1,000 on jewelry or $200 on comic books and trading cards. If one of the items you’re storing in the unit has this cap, you have to think about this,” Bach says How much is storage insurance? The cost of storage insurance varies significantly based on the value of the items you store inside. For example, if you have $10,000 worth of items in storage, you could pay anywhere from $8 to $38 for your insurance. It all depends on what you store inside. As an example, below are the average rates advertised by MiniCo, one of the largest companies in the U.S. for storage unit insurance. Rates from other companies will vary. Average cost of storage unit insurance at MiniCo Coverage limit Average price per month $4,000 $16 $10,000 $38 $25,000 $87 $50,000 $175 $75,000 $240 The cost of storage unit insurance varies based on the company you choose, so always compare multiple quotes to find the most affordable rates for your needs. QuickTake Home insurance claims: How to file and what you should know Is carpenter ant damage covered by homeowners insurance? Guide to the insurance claims history report (CLUE) Does homeowners insurance cover rotting wood? 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If your home insurance does not provide adequate coverage to match what you need, you can ask your home insurance company for an expanded quote to allow for extended coverage. What is not covered by storage insurance? There are some events where your storage insurance is woefully inadequate. Some of the events that typically require additional coverage include: Normal wear and tear Floods Earthquakes You can fill some of the gaps by getting additional coverage from a policy endorsement. Buying storage insurance Whether you are shopping for a new homeowners policy or simply adding a new storage insurance policy, you should shop around for multiple quotes from different insurance companies. This way you can compare home insurance quotes to find the best and cheapest home insurance policy for you. “It’s an important purchase, and you want to protect yourself and your valuables and make sure that your needs are being met,” says Jim Whittle, Assistant General of the Counsel and Chief Claims Counsel of the American Insurance Association. “You have to shop around for coverage. There is insurance you can buy for stored items and you want to ask for that. The amount of coverage depends on the individual and how much you want to pay and what you have in your storage unit. There may also be coverage that the storage facility has, so you’ll want to explore that. Some facilities might offer that as an extra charge.” If you’re young and have few possessions, you may not need an expensive policy, “but you need something,” says Eric Cutler, Director of Personal Lines at Oregon Mutual Insurance in McMinnville, Ore. “As you become an adult and get out on your own, you need to know what’s covered and not covered.” Storage at a parent’s house What if your stuff is stored in your parents’ driveway in a storage pod? How about if your belongings are at their house? Are they fully insured? To be sure, read the insurance policy that protects the home. “A lot of carriers cover this, and we do as well,” says Cutler. “We cover personal property, whether it’s in a storage pod in the driveway, in your house or in your backyard. It just can’t be on the street or across the street from your house.” Check your policy or consult your insurance agent to find out what is covered for your belongings. The bottom line Most home insurance policies cover storage units, but coverage may be limited. If you need to purchase additional coverage, storage insurance can help protect your belongings. Just be sure to itemize and document each of your belongings with receipts and photos, so you can file a claim for reimbursement should they be destroyed from a covered loss. Whether you have home insurance or specific storage insurance, your overflow items may be protected even if they are not at home with you. Lena BorrelliContributing Researcher | . .Lena Borrelli is a freelance writer from sunny Tampa Bay who has worked with such leading industry titans as Gronk Fitness, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Simon Corporation. Her work has most recently been published on sites like TIME, Microsoft News, Bankrate, Investopedia, Fiscal Tiger, The Simple Dollar, ADT and Home Advisor. In case you missed it What is HO-6 condo insurance and how much does it cost? 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Most Americans don’t 1/1 Related Articles Renters insurance calculator: How much renters insurance costs by state and city in 2024 By Shivani Gite Condo and co-op homeowners insurance: What you should know By Mark Vallet Cost of living calculator By Nupur Gambhir Homeowners insurance rates by state in 2024 By Jake Safane Homeowners insurance calculator: Estimate the cost of homeowners insurance By Jessica Olson Mobile home insurance cost and coverage in 2024 By Chris Kissell On this page What is storage unit insurance?How homeowners insurance provides storage unit coverageHow much is storage insurance?How much storage unit insurance coverage do you need?What is not covered by storage insurance?Buying storage insuranceStorage at a parent's houseThe bottom line ZIP Code Please enter valid ZIP See rates