Guides
Your belongings away from home: off-premises coverage
Personal property coverage follows you worldwide, but a 10% cap hits storage units and other residences, and lost luggage is not a covered peril.
Your Coverage C limit follows your belongings "anywhere in the world," according to the standard ISO HO-3 form (HO 00 03 05 11). A laptop stolen from a hotel room is covered like one stolen from your den, subject to your deductible. Two things change the picture away from home: a cap of 10% of Coverage C (or $1,000, whichever is greater) on property kept at another residence or in a self-storage unit, and the fact that Coverage C pays only for named perils, which is why a dropped phone or a suitcase that never arrives is not a homeowners claim.
The rules below describe the ISO form. Your insurer's own wording and your state's amendatory endorsement control, so check your policy for the "Limit for Property at Other Locations" paragraph.
The default: covered anywhere, for named perils
Under the HO-3, buildings are insured on an open-perils basis, but personal property is insured only against the sixteen perils the form lists: fire or lightning, windstorm or hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, smoke, vandalism, theft, falling objects, weight of ice, snow or sleet, accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam, sudden tearing apart or bulging of a heating system, air conditioner, sprinkler system or water heater, freezing, artificially generated electrical current, and volcanic eruption. That wording is the same at home and away. For more on how named perils differ from open perils, see named perils vs open perils coverage.
Three consequences follow:
- Theft is covered, losing things is not. The theft peril includes attempted theft and loss "from a known place when it is likely that the property has been stolen." A bag left on a train seat with no sign of theft is a loss of a different kind.
- Accidental damage is not a peril. A tablet dropped in the airport or a camera knocked into a lake is outside the list unless you bought an endorsement for it.
- Settlement is at actual cash value. The form pays personal property at actual cash value unless you have added a replacement cost endorsement, so a five-year-old laptop pays what a five-year-old laptop is worth. See Personal property coverage (Coverage C) explained.
The 10% rule for other residences and storage units
Two limits in the form reduce what Coverage C pays for property that lives somewhere other than your home.
Other residences. Property "usually located" at an insured's residence other than the residence premises is limited to 10% of Coverage C or $1,000, whichever is greater. Think of furniture and belongings you keep at a lake cabin, a second apartment or a child's dorm room.
Self-storage. Property in a self-storage facility has the same cap: 10% of Coverage C or $1,000, whichever is greater. Older or proprietary forms may word this limit differently or omit it, so read yours.
Say your Coverage C limit is $150,000. A fire in your storage unit pays no more than $15,000 for what was inside, however much the contents were worth. The $1,000 floor only matters if your Coverage C limit is below $10,000. The cap applies to a covered loss: storage does not become uninsured, just limited.
There are carve-outs, and they matter after a house fire. The cap does not apply to property you moved out of your home because the home is being repaired, renovated or rebuilt and is not fit to live in or store property in. A newly acquired principal residence gets 30 days of full limit from the time you begin moving property there. For storage units, the cap also does not apply to property usually kept at another insured residence, which falls under the other-residences rule instead.
Theft away from home has its own exclusions
The theft peril in the ISO form excludes a few off-premises situations. The theft of trailers, semitrailers, campers and watercraft is not covered when it happens off the residence premises. Neither is theft of property at another residence that an insured owns, rents or occupies, unless an insured is temporarily living there. A hotel room, a rental cabin and a friend's guest room are temporary; a second home you own and visit on weekends is its own policy's problem.
One exception: a student's property is covered at the residence the student occupies to attend school, as long as the student has been there at any time in the 90 days before the loss. The details are in does homeowners insurance cover a college student's belongings?.
Special limits follow your belongings
The dollar caps on categories of property apply wherever the property is. Under the ISO form:
- $200 on money and similar items
- $1,500 on securities, passports, tickets and similar papers
- $1,500 on jewelry, watches and furs, for theft only
- $2,500 on firearms, for theft only
- $1,500 on property used primarily for business when it is away from the residence premises
- $1,500 on portable electronics in or on a motor vehicle, and $250 on antennas, tapes, disks and similar media in a vehicle
ISO's newer 2022 forms raise several of these limits (jewelry theft to $2,000 and money to $300, for example), but they are only starting to reach policyholders: North Carolina's version takes effect June 1, 2027. Your declarations page and policy jacket show which edition you have.
So the engagement ring stolen from a hotel safe is a $1,500 claim, not a ring-sized one, unless it is scheduled. Business gear travels under the lower business-property cap, a gap discussed in business property at home: what a homeowners policy pays. For a full list, see special limits on jewelry, firearms, cash and collectibles, and for the fix, scheduling jewelry, art and valuables.
Common scenarios
| Situation | How the ISO HO-3 treats it |
|---|---|
| Laptop stolen from a hotel room | Theft is a named peril; covered at actual cash value, less your deductible. |
| Suitcase lost by an airline | Not a homeowners claim. Federal rules require any limit on an airline's domestic baggage liability to be at least $4,700 per passenger (14 CFR 254.5, as amended October 2024); read the airline's contract for exclusions. |
| Clothes and furniture in a storage unit destroyed by fire | Covered, capped at 10% of Coverage C or $1,000, whichever is greater. |
| Belongings at a cabin you own stolen | Excluded by the theft peril unless an insured was temporarily living there; that risk belongs on the cabin's own policy. |
| Camera dropped from a boat | Not covered; accidental damage is not a named peril. |
| Items stolen from a rental car | Theft peril applies, subject to the special limits; insurer forms vary on thefts from vehicles, so check yours. |
| Belongings moved out because a fire made your home unlivable | Covered without the 10% cap while the home is being repaired. |
Before a trip or a move
- Read the Coverage C "other locations" paragraph and write down the dollar amount of 10% for your policy.
- Photograph or list what is in storage, and keep the list outside the unit. how to make a home inventory for insurance shows how.
- Ask whether the storage facility's own tenant policy duplicates or fills a gap. Its terms differ from yours; compare before buying.
- If you carry jewelry, cameras or instruments on trips, ask what scheduling them costs.
- Keep receipts and serial numbers for anything you bring. If it is stolen, you must notify the police, a duty under the policy.
Moving day has its own risks. Movers' liability and your policy do not line up neatly, and moving: insuring two homes and your things in transit covers the questions worth asking before the truck is loaded.
Key takeaways
- In the ISO HO-3, Coverage C covers your property anywhere in the world, but only for named perils and at actual cash value unless you add replacement cost.
- Property in a self-storage unit or usually kept at another residence is capped at the greater of 10% of Coverage C or $1,000.
- Lost luggage, dropped devices and other non-peril losses are not covered, and the special limits on jewelry, cash and business property apply everywhere.
- Property moved out of a home being repaired, and the first 30 days at a newly acquired home, escape the 10% cap.
- Policy wording varies, so confirm the limits in your own form.