Is Your Gazebo Covered by Home Insurance?

You've invested in a gazebo for your backyard. It could be any type of structure you've added to your property as a way to enjoy it more so. Perhaps your gazebo is damaged in a fire or a storm comes through your area and a tree branch hits it, causing a significant amount of damage. Gazebos can be highly valuable investments, which means that repairs to them can be quite costly as well. If you are not sure if your home insurance will help to cover these costs, now may be the time to take a closer look at your policy.

In most cases, home insurance policies will cover your home as well as most structures on your property such as a shed or a gazebo. However, it does not usually cover these items fully. Most of the time, it will generally cover these types of structures for about 10 percent of the amount of your home insurance policy that is on the structure of your home. That may not seem like enough, but it usually is.

If you have a high-value gazebo or you want to add more protection for it, you can usually do that. You can add to your home insurance coverage for these types of structures. This will increase the amount of coverage you have on the structure, and it will specifically list that structure on your policy, providing you with additional protection. Of course, this does cost a bit more, but since gazebos can cost between $2,500 and $10,000 to install or much more for larger investments, it can be worthwhile.

Your home insurance can help to minimize risks associated with many types of damage to such structures. However, it does not cover normal wear and tear or incidents that relate specifically to poor maintenance. You will need to keep your gazebo in good working order.

Talk to your home insurance company about your addition of a gazebo to your property. Your agent may recommend adding more insurance protection to your home to keep these larger assets protected. If there is an incident, be sure to alert your insurer right away to discuss your coverage.