Your homeowners insurance can cover more than just your house itself and includes personal property coverage, which provides financial protection in case of damage to your personal belongings. But, how does that coverage apply to expensive technology like a laptop you might need to use every day?
Your laptop is very likely to be covered in some respects on your home insurance policy, but you need to recognize when and how your laptop’s coverage is limited.
Personal Property Coverage
Personal property coverage protects belongings kept in your home, such as money, jewelry, electronics, kitchen appliances and more. Of course, your laptop will only be covered if personal property coverage applies to the scenario in which your laptop was damaged.
For example, if your laptop is water damaged, you may or may not be reimbursed based on exactly how that damage occurred. Insurance policies will detail a list of “named perils,” which include causes or events under which you are covered by your policy.
Standard home insurance policies will cover theft, vandalism, windstorms, and structural damage to the home, among other things. So, if in the example above, the water damage came from flooding pipes, the claim on your laptop has a good chance of being approved. As standard home insurance doesn’t cover floods, a laptop damaged during natural flooding wouldn’t be covered.
Additionally, you will need to know what kind of overall policy you have, a replacement cost or actual cash value coverage. In the former, your insurance would reimburse a claim based on the cost for you to replace your laptop for its retail value. In the latter type of policy, your claim would be reimbursed for the depreciated value of your used laptop.
That difference is something to keep in mind when choosing a policy.
Additional Considerations
Insurance companies will generally have several caveats that would apply to the damage of personal property, which would factor into their decision to accept or reject a claim on your laptop.
Returning to the example of the water-damaged laptop, if your insurance adjuster decides that you didn’t act in a way that would properly avoid/prevent the damage, your claim may be denied. This could be a simple as leaving your laptop in a backpack or briefcase on the floor, which left it in reach of the rising water.
While the malfunctioning pipes of your home may seem unforeseeable to you, your insurance company will likely determine that you weren’t taking proper care of your laptop and refuse to reimburse you for it. Insurance companies often will not cover laptops damaged from being connected to an outlet during a power surge, either. So take all the steps you can to prevent damage to your laptop by keeping it in a safe place and using a surge protector.
Coverage Limits
Certain coverage limits will apply to your laptop depending on how you use it. If your laptop is primarily used for business, most home insurance policies will have a specific cap of $2,500 on the personal property coverage that can be applied.
If the laptop or any related accessories are regularly taken out of the home, your policy may have a specific limit on the reimbursement you have received in that scenario as well, even if the cause of the damage is a “named peril.
Make sure to stay well-informed about how your home insurance policies work so that you aren’t met with unexpected expenses or without a laptop you need for your family or your profession. Consider purchasing an electronic endorsement if you decide your laptop warrant additional financial protection apart from your personal property coverage
