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Everything you need to know about insurance basics, like coverage types, limits, cost and more.
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Your homeowners insurance is designed to protect your home and belongings from the unexpected — and understanding how and what that protection includes helps ensure you have the right coverage in place.
The detached structures on your property, like your fence, aren’t covered by your home insurance unless you purchase unscheduled structures coverage, which as an optional coverage you can add to your policy. This coverage offers limited protection of up to $5,000. It’s important to understand that if you only rely on this limited coverage, you may be left without adequate protection to cover damages to your detached structures. That’s why you can further protect structures on your property that aren’t attached to your home, such as garages, gazebos, sheds and fences, by selecting higher limits to suit your needs.
Your fence is usually covered for the same unexpected events as your home, for instance damage from wind storms, hail, lightning, vehicle damage, fire and smoke, as well as vandalism.
If your fence is damaged by an event covered by insurance and you file a claim, the repairs or replacement will be for its actual cash value (ACV), meaning your insurance company will help cover the cost, but they’ll take into account the fence’s age and condition. If your fence is a non-wooden fence, you can choose to schedule it — which means you can choose to have greater coverage for a broader number of risks for just your fence — and receive replacement cost coverage (RCV), which repairs or replaces your property with new property of the same type, kind and quality. So you won’t have to worry about paying more than your deductible to cover the damage. Wooden fences are only eligible ACV coverage.
Fences can deteriorate quickly if not maintained, and often, if a fence isn’t properly maintained, it’ll rot and become more prone to damage from the elements, like being blown down. Keep in mind that this coverage excludes wear and tear, so damage that results as a lack of maintenance won’t be covered.
Whether a tornado or a fierce wind-storm destroyed your fence, wind-related damage is covered by your home insurance. So if your fence is damaged by a storm, you should be covered up to your policy’s other structures limit.
If a tree falls on your fence due to a covered loss, like a windstorm, your home insurance will typically help cover the cost (up to your policy’s other structures limit) to repair or replace it. And, your insurance will also cover the cost to remove enough of the tree that the fence can be repaired or replaced.
However, if the tree doesn’t damage a covered building, your insurance company may not help cover the cost for damages or removal.
If your fence is damaged and you file a claim, you’ll want to complete the following:
You can easily submit your claim online or by calling 1-800-MYAMFAM (692-6326) to talk with one of our trusted claims professionals — they know what it takes to make your entire experience as reassuring and convenient as possible.
Get the right coverage by connecting with an American Family Insurance agent. They’ll help you determine what homeowners coverage you need to properly protect your home and everything that makes it uniquely yours.
Related Topics: Home Insurance
