Hello everybody,

I have a home based business. I would like to store my inventory in my garage. What is the best way to insure it? Do I have to specifiy these facts to my homeowner insurance company? Or should I contact a separate company? What is the best way in terms of costs?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Is there a reason that you don't want to talk to your insurance agent?

What's the value of your inventory?

I wouldn't have talked to him yet either. Some insurance agents are very dirty, plain and simple.

I am considering having an inventory (it is probably going to be between 5,000 and 20,000 dollars). Now I am in the early preparation stage.

I don't want to talk to my insurance agent for the moment because I need clear and transparent answers in order to prepare my budget. I need to understand how the system works before going out and asking for quotes to insurance companies. I hope you understand I am getting ready before starting the process.

I look forward to your replies.

Just phone up an insurance company and ask.

Choose any company but not your current insurer for advice if you don't want to reveal anything to them.

In any case if you insure with a company, that does NOT mean that a claim will be successful as assessment is made on the CLAIM, not the nature of the policy. So if you are in breach of the policy by not revealing important detail to the insurance company, the company may just decide to NOT pay.

You should just phone your own company and tell them what you want to do.

Once you start this, just be sure to keep monitoring your inventory levels. Your policy will cover up to a certain value. A couple times a year we review our inventory/fixtures against what our policy will cover. If we get close to that max amount we'll call our agent and increase the policy accordingly. Being under-insured can be dangerous.

Good luck.