Does homeowners insurance cover theft of car from driveway?

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Asked November 29, 2011

1 Answer


Homeowners insurance will only cover your car if it is damaged by something such as a tree falling on it. Your home insurance is meant to protect the home and your personal possessions, not to provide insurance for other insurable items, such as a car, RV, boat or ATV. All of those items have policies available for them specifically, and adding them to a home policy would drive the cost of the home insurance premium up to the point of making it too expensive for you to buy, and too risky for the insurance company to write the policy.

If someone steals the car, that is a claim against the auto insurance policy, and then only if the policy includes comprehensive coverage. Ordinary PIP and liability insurance for cars does not include theft. Car insurance is the type of policy used to cover a car against theft. And even then you would need a policy that includes comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive car insurance provides protection against incidents with no immediately known at fault, such as a rock flying up and cracking the windshield. It also provides coverage for crimes against the car, including burglary, vandalism, and theft.

Your homeowners insurance does provide protection against theft of personal property, but not against personal property that is otherwise insured under a different policy. If the thief had taken your lawn mower, your home insurance would pay to replace it, or pay the depreciated value of the mower, depending on which type of reciprocal payment you chose. But since cars are required by law to carry their own insurance, your homeowner's policy is omitted from responsibility by default.

If your son had been playing ball in the yard and accidentally broke the car window, your home insurance would pay to replace the window, but may try to deny the claim anyway on the ground that comprehensive coverage would pay for such damages. Technically, since the window was broken by your son when it was not in use, it would be the liability portion of the home insurance policy that was in force at the time.

Answered November 29, 2011 by Anonymous

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