Insurance

If you have a homeowners policy or a renters policy, sometimes that policy will include a small amount of coverage for “possessions stored off premises”. In Missouri, the amount of coverage included in the homeowners or renters policy for possessions stored off premises typically ranges from 0% to 10% of the contents coverage on the policy. Additional coverage can be purchased for a reasonable premium amount to appropriately cover the contents kept in your storage unit.

For example, if you have a homeowners policy which insures your house for $100,000.00 and your contents for $50,000.00, then the maximum coverage that you might have for contents at a storage unit would be $5,000.00 (10% of the contents coverage). The actual amount of coverage will vary depending on your specific policy and you can request additional coverage to be added to your policy if needed based on the value of your items.

Also, most policies have restrictions on the type of contents that they will cover in case of a loss that occurs off premises. Items which have a high value or may have a wide range of values based on specific features of that item may be required to be listed individually or they will be excluded from coverage. These would include items such as guns, antiques, jewelry, furs, etc. Also, most homeowners and renters policies will not cover items which are used to earn money –those are considered business or commercial items and must be covered under a different kind of policy which must be purchased separately.