Insurance for your Car Parts

[Irish911]

Found out today that I only have $3K worth of insurance on my car parts. Not to be confused with the car(s) themselves, which are insured separately, or the tools I have, which are covered as part of the homeowners policy. I have more than one car so I have various parts for each of them, carbs, head lights, steering wheels, fog lights, rims, seat frames, gauges etc and their value far exceeds $3K. Apparently my insurer has a maximum of $3K for car parts. I'm in the process of finding out why that is and if there is some way I can increase it, or change insurers if need be.

So I am wondering if others are aware of their own coverage for the parts they have sitting on various shelves. This would not be applicable to a garage or any other commercial/industrial operation obviously. There are a lot of car owners out there that have a stack of parts sitting around. With the price of parts for many cars having jumped so much in the last year I am sure I am not the only one in this boat. Has anyone else looked into this? Perhaps it is dependent on the insurance company. My homeowners/farm insurance is separate from my vehicle insurance.

[NorthernThrux]

This is pretty typical. They also typically only cover $5k of jewelry, or artwork or stamps or hobbies as well. If you want more, you have to get appraisals and then get an additional rider. So my boxes of Lionel trains and the jewelry my mother gave my wife are all additional riders on our home insurance.

My homeowners insurance (Statefarm) covers $5k of car parts stored in the home or garage. My auto insurance for my regular cars (also Statefarm) only covers the cars. Anything in them that is stolen comes under the homeowner insurance (but subject to $3k or $5k limits). Hagerty, which I have on my longhood, covers all the parts of the longhood, but not spare parts or misc. stuff sitting around in the garage.


Ravi

[Bill Simmeth]

Hagerty does include coverage for $750 in spare parts in the base car coverage. You can increase to unlimited for an extra fee. They'll do the same for tools.

[Irish911]

Good news, our broker got in touch with the insurance company and they were willing to make an exception and increase my limit to a max of $20K, without having to itemize everything. Now just have to figure out how much coverage I actually need.

Just thought I would bring this up since I am sure there are others that haven't actually thought about the coverage on their car parts.

[Richardnew]

There's a basic rule in the industry that says "If the insurance company doesn't know about it isn't insured." This is especially important for unregistered project cars.

You also want to make sure your car is insured while it's in a shop. The shop probably doesn't carry enough insurance so if the shop catches fire you only get a percentage of the car's value. Make sure your insurance company is brought up to date.

Richard Newton

[johns4949]

Basic garage owners insurance would probably not cover the cost of a set of restored Fuch's. It's like having a car transported by common carrier, their insurance varies and in the end you get skewered if the rig burns to the ground. So it is best to make sure your insurance covers any scenario that may happen during restoration or transportation.

[tomkirkcis]

Irish, you did not specify if you are discussing coverage under your car or home insurance. I have been in the insurance claims industry for over 30 yrs. The majority of insurance companies utilize forms written by the Insurance Service Organization (ISO) The homeowner policy's written by ISO exclude motor vehicles except those used to service the premises (think yard tractor). "Parts in or upon the vehicle" are also excluded. Parts not in our upon the vehicle are typically covered. The majority of the homeowners policy I have ever experienced do not have specific limitation on car parts. As long as they are personal property, and not business property, your limit for personal property is the limit for the coverage of car parts. Store them separately.

This is true for the majority of the insurance companies out there, but may not be true of the majority of policies. Company specific policies, written by the huge carriers like State Farm or Allstate may differ. Given their market share, they control a huge chunk of the policies out there. I do not have experience with their policies, so I am unable to comment.