What is Content Insurance in Canada?

What is Content Insurance?

Home content insurance provides coverage for your personal belongings in the event of loss or damage. All contents can be covered, whether your belongings are indoors or temporarily outdoors (e.g. when you’re on the road). What’s more, insurance coverage generally applies to detached structures (e.g. sheds, detached garages, etc.). Ultimately, taking out content insurance is the best way to protect your personal belongings such as :

• Furniture (couches, beds, tables, etc.)
• Appliances (refrigerator, stove, washer, etc.)
• Electronic products (smartphones, laptops, game consoles, televisions, hard drives, etc.)
• Entertainment items (games, game consoles, books, sports equipment)
• Clothing and accessories (jewelry, watches, etc.)
• Art objects
• Etc.

There are two types of content insurance: content insurance for owners and content insurance for tenants. Here’s more information on each of them.

Content Insurance for Homeowners

A comprehensive homeowner’s insurance policy (all risks) will already include content insurance in its offering. However, this is not necessarily the case for basic or extended home insurance.

What’s more, coverage may differ for houses and condos, and each insurer may have its own conditions and exclusions. For example, check the special conditions for valuables (e.g. jewelry) to make sure that the insurance coverage corresponds to your needs. Also check your policy’s deductible (the amount you must pay to make a claim), as the deductible may be higher than the replacement cost in some cases.

Content Insurance for Tenants

Content insurance for tenants is easy to understand. As a tenant, you must inform your insurer of the amount of insurance required to protect your property. To do this, you can add up the value of the content you wish to insure. Then take out content insurance to cover this value. So you can choose the amount of insurance you need.

That said, check the conditions and exclusions in your insurance contract. If necessary, contact your current insurance company.

Claims covered by Content Insurance

Home content insurance generally covers (but not always) the following risks and losses:

• Fire
• Lightning
• Smoke damage
• Water damage
• Theft
• Vandalism
• Wind or hail storms
• Falling objects

What’s more, you can choose to add an “endorsement” (additional coverage) to your policy to protect your contents against earthquake or flood. Such an endorsement depends on where you live and whether you are likely to be exposed to this type of risk. Since these events are infrequent, they may not be automatically covered by content insurance plans.

Check your insurance contract or contact your insurance company to find out if the risks listed above are covered by your current home insurance policy. Otherwise, don’t hesitate to contact a damage insurance brokerage firm like YouSet for home insurance quotes that meet your needs.

Advantages of Content Insurance

Here are the main advantages of taking out home content insurance:

• Peace of mind: your personal belongings are covered in the event of theft, fire or other covered losses
• Repair or replace your personal belongings quickly and easily

Claims advice

It’s a good idea to keep an inventory of your goods, including their purchase price, ideally with receipts. This makes it much easier to manage any claims. To find out more, see our “Tips for submitting an insurance claim” in our Complete Guide to Home Insurance in Canada.

Types of Content Insurance

The specifics of your policy determine how you are compensated and how much you receive in the event of a claim. For example, the type of content coverage you choose can have a considerable impact on the amount of reimbursement in the event of a claim. There is a crucial distinction between replacement cost and actual cash value.

Here’s how it works:

• Replacement cost : After a claim, you will receive the amount needed to replace your products with another of equal quality. This option is the more expensive of the two, but you’ll receive a larger repayment amount for your assets.
• Actual Cash Value (ACV): You will receive products of similar quality to the current market value of a used item of the same model. This is more cost-effective coverage, but your insurer will pay less.

How much Content Insurance do you need?

Your insurance and content limits should correspond to the cost of replacing your personal belongings with new ones.

Draw up an inventory of your personal belongings

The easiest way to determine total value is to go through the contents of your home, one by one, to calculate the total value of your possessions. Distinguish between the purchase price and the replacement cost of each item. In most cases, your limit will be around 70% of the total amount of the building’s coverage.

Check limits and conditions

Consider obtaining specific coverage for high-value items. As mentioned above, certain valuables (e.g. jewelry, bicycles, works of art, etc.) are subject to restrictions and limitations. In some cases, certain valuables simply cannot be covered by a standard insurance policy.

Correct the amount of insurance required

Check the conditions and coverage amounts in your current insurance policy. If necessary, call your insurer to adjust the amount of insurance to suit your needs, add a rider or change your coverage (e.g. comprehensive home insurance).

Bottom Line

A content insurance policy generally covers your belongings up to a predetermined amount. Therefore, the first step in finding insurance is to make a detailed inventory of your personal possessions and determine their total value. The level of coverage provided by your policy should be sufficient to replace all or most of the contents of your home.

Use our home insurance comparison tool to find the best home insurance for your needs.

What personal belongings are covered?

Personal belongings generally covered by content insurance includes furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing and accessories, and much more.

What types of content insurance are available?

Content insurance provides coverage for your personal belongings in the event of loss, theft or other covered losses. All contents can be covered, whether your belongings are indoors or temporarily outdoors (e.g. when you’re on the road). What’s more, insurance coverage generally applies to detached structures such as sheds.