Storing Firearms & Ammo at home will it impact my Home Insurance

Do I have to tell my Insurance Company that I have Firearms and Ammunition at Home? Would they cover me if I were to suffer a Break In or Fire? Or do people usually have to declare this to their Insurance company and pay a premium? Just curious as to what's the right thing to do.

I would declare it, if memory serves correct you need what they refer to as an umbrella policy to cover things other than "regular" household contents. Always better to be over insured than under, they could always just refuse to pay if there is no mention of it.

its not even worth telling them.....they will cover only up to 1000$ or 2000$ and it falls under sporting goods with most insurance companies

I informed my broker about owning firearms; told them I would always be under the legal cap for not having special storage and not having a special permit for ammunition and gunpowder; told them all firearms are always stored in accordance with all laws and regulations; and told them the total of the value of the firearms. If I had any firearms where the firearm, scope and scope mounts exceeded $5000.00 or were of a special interest to me they were "registered" with the insurance company with serial numbers and photos (I only noted I owned a Boberg and it was not replaceable as the company sold to another manufacturer).

There was no change whatsoever to the cost or details of the policy.

Originally Posted by WinterHawk

Do I have to tell my Insurance Company that I have Firearms and Ammunition at Home? Would they cover me if I were to suffer a Break In or Fire? Or do people usually have to declare this to their Insurance company and pay a premium? Just curious as to what's the right thing to do.

Unless you have collector grade or premium grade firearms that you need covered on a separate policy rider,you're under no obligation to declare anything to your insurance company. Your firearms are insured automatically under your homeowner's policy. Your deductible will be greater than the value of a lost,stolen or damaged firearm making reporting the loss a waste of time under most circumstances save a fire or theft. In that case of a total loss,photographic evidence as proof of ownership will be required to file a claim. Just as an aside,people are very wise to photograph/video the entire contents of their homes paying special attention to valuables like art work and jewelry.

Tell them pay a couple dollars extra, don't be stupid not worth it.I could write ten stories of people I know who didn't

Trimmer 905 has it correct unless they are of special status they will be covered under standard home policy . If you company adds charges because you own firearms they are over charging and you shoud shop around .i have been in the firearm industry for 3 decades and have done 100's of claims for people and even one for myself

I can’t answer for every home policy out there as they may all have there own specifications but here is some general info, some of which has been touched on.
1. Only real reason to report firearms would be if you have antique or high value items. These items will mostly likely be scheduled and you will need to provide make model and serial number.
2. Firearms are almost always considered contents. No different then your socks or dishes. However, it’s best to double check that your policy doesn’t consider firearms sporting goods as most policies will have a sub limit for sporting goods and usually its low.
3. If you do your own reloading I would recommend double checking they don’t have an exclusion for “explosives” that they might be able to catch you with. That being said I don’t know of any standard exclusion that would apply.
4. I would recommend asking your broker some questions “ for a friend “ so as to get some straight answers about your specific wording without raising any unnecessary flags.

Hopefully that helps.

I’ve had companies say no and one actually wanted me to give them serial numbers! Told them to pound salt...

Originally Posted by WinterHawk

Do I have to tell my Insurance Company that I have Firearms and Ammunition at Home? Would they cover me if I were to suffer a Break In or Fire? Or do people usually have to declare this to their Insurance company and pay a premium? Just curious as to what's the right thing to do.

answers in order of questions: NO; YES; NO.

The only time you would want to declare them to your insurance is if you have "collectible" items that are not replaceable (or very difficult to replace) and worth substantial amounts of money.

Same as anything else - your wife has a diamond ring - did she tell the Ins Co? No. If she has the HOPE DIAMOND at home, you better tell the Ins. Co.

After seeing posts similar to this I asked my company at the last renewal - I reload as well - and they said everything would be covered because i had replacement value insurance - they cover everything in the home to the limit of the policy (Key words) so if your policy limit is for example $400,000 and you think that is not enough, they bump it up.