What Does Self Storage Insurance Consist Of?
Insurance is a big topic when it comes to self storage as ultimately it is needed one way or the other, so that if the worst should happen, the situation is covered, either by a policy you have taken out through the self storage company or one that you have entered into independently. It is a common requirement of entering into a storage contract that there is an insurance policy in place – no insurance means that storing the items is going to be a big risk for the storage company.
It is worth seeing if you are already covered by existing insurance on your items. Particular items you may be holding, such as musical instruments or vehicles, could have storage conditions as a significant portion of what you are paying for – they do spend most of their time not being used and kept from place to place. But on the domestic front, just because you have home contents insurance, this doesn’t automatically mean that your items are insured wherever they are going to be, no matter if they are domestic items, or if they are not being used, or if the self storage facility is near you just around the corner. You will need to read the wording and check that it applies in your situation with regards to storage outside of the home in this specific circumstance. If it does then that’s great, but more often that not it might require a discussion with your insurers to see if the policy can be extended to encompass this extra offering.
If you decide to take the route of insuring through your self storage company, then how does that actually work? To begin with the self storage company will need to know the value of the goods that you will be storing, much like any other insurance deal. The insurance is then paid for as part of the regular monthly payments, with the amount in scale with the declared value of what you are storing. The insurance contracts for self storage are tailored for these arrangements, essentially the storage company has already taken out an overarching policy and is legally authorising that the value of your goods is added to it. It is less common that the self storage company themselves are a standalone insurance provider, although this is a feature that the bigger chains are getting interested in.
Your insurance contract will specify exactly what is covered, but it will be covering many of the worst case scenarios, natural disasters and social unrest, that many insurance contracts do. Should any of those eventualities occur, they will undoubtedly knock out a large chunk of the storage facility and insurers will be able to make a settlement with the storage company which they can then distribute to the affected clients as per their declared value of goods. Obviously, the contract will also very specific about everybody’s biggest concern which is straight up theft from the unit, and a claim for that will require the requisite evidence that the unit has been forcibly broken into.
At the end of the day it is up to you to decide which arrangement is most suitable for you, either using the standard self insurance policy that can be laid on by your storage provider, or if for whatever reason the type of items you are storing leads you to have something more bespoke in mind.
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