Your personal possessions are probably more likely to be damaged during a move than they are just sitting in your home. But if you’re moving out of one home and into another, does your insurance actually cover your items during the move? The short answer is: not necessarily. Your homeowners or renters insurance does cover your personal items, it only protects them from the kinds of risks that are listed in your policy. This means they are probably not covered for something like a mover dropping them or scratching them up while putting them into a truck.
The good news is, however, that if you are using a professional moving service, they probably come with their own insurance that does cover the kind of damage that is likely to occur during a move. So while your homeowners or renters insurance doesn’t protect your items from the kind of damage that often happens during a move, the insurance carried by your movers will.
That said, it is possible that your homeowners or renters insurance does have you covered, if the damage that occurs is something that would be covered had the damage actually occurred in your home. For example, if a tree falls on the truck and crushes your piano and you are covered for acts of nature in your policy, this incident might still be covered.
If there are items that you are very concerned about being damaged during a move and the movers do not have adequate insurance to cover those items (or you are not using movers), you might want to reach out to your insurance company and see if you can purchase insurance that will cover those items.
