Posted On: April 16, 2007, 3:47 pm CDT

Posted By: Did They Know?

Did they know their boathouse was not covered if it was on an *adjoining* property they owned?

Clearly they *should* have known if they had read their contract carefully, but we all know how many consumers really do that.

I could just as easily see this being a case of agent sloppiness.

If I bought an adjoining lot and called my agent to add it to my policy, being otherwise as ignorant of insurance as the average customer, would my agent add the adjoining lot to the description of my insured location, or simply add it as an additional property for liability coverage?

Would I, as the customer, know enough to care?

Or would I assume, since the agent didn't make a fuss about it, that my policy now covered both lots as my home?

Yes, the agent should clarify what the insured wants to do, and yes, the insured to should read the contract to make sure it was added correctly. But realistically, when a customer buys a neighboring lot, intending to use it as part of his home, how often is it handled correctly?

For a non-adjacent lot, the situation is different, it should be a little more obvious that the land down the street is not part of the same land your home is on. But if you buy the vacant lot next door, and treat it like part of your property, wouldn't the average consumer expect homeowners insurance to continue across the lot line?