Burglary Insurance

What Does Burglary Insurance Mean?

A burglary insurance policy is a type of crime insurance that covers losses resulting from burglary. Simply put, burglary occurs when someone uses force to unlawfully enter another person’s property, even if nothing is stolen in the end.

The types of losses typically covered include:

• Theft of property from a locked premise, such as a home, business, or vehicle.
• Damage caused by the intruder during the break-in.

Although the terms burglary, robbery, and theft are often used interchangeably, they have distinct legal and insurance definitions. In the insurance world, burglary specifically refers to theft that involves the use of force to unlawfully enter a property.

To have your claim recognized by an insurer, you must file a police report and provide evidence of forced entry, such as a broken window or scratch marks on a door. Without such evidence, the insurer will not consider it a burglary, and you would not be eligible for coverage.

The broadest term for this type of loss is “theft.” In insurance terms, theft refers to any act of taking property without the owner’s consent, regardless of the method used.

If theft is listed as an insured peril on your policy, you can be confident that your property is protected against all types of criminal losses, including burglary, robbery, or other forms of theft.

Insuranceopedia Explains Burglary Insurance

The terms “burglary” and “robbery” are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings in the context of insurance. Both involve theft, unlawful entry, and the use of force, but the key difference lies in who or what the force is directed toward.

Robbery is defined as using force, threats of force, or intimidation to steal from someone, meaning a victim is directly involved in the act. An example of this is a bank robbery, where tellers and customers are held at gunpoint.

Burglary, on the other hand, involves the use of force or felonious entry, but no force is applied to a person. For example, a “cat burglar” sneaks into a home unnoticed, without any confrontation or victim involved.

To substantiate a burglary claim, insurers typically require proof of ownership of the stolen item(s), a police report, and evidence of forced entry. This could include broken windows, scratch marks on doors, or other signs that force was used to enter the premises. If there are no signs of forced entry, the incident would be considered theft or robbery, not burglary, and may fall under different types of coverage.

Burglary insurance is commonly included in various insurance policies, such as:

• Travel Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Commercial property insurance

However, coverage for burglary is often limited in scope. It might only cover specific types of property (e.g., stock and equipment, but not money or jewelry) or have strict limits on how much compensation you can receive for burglary-related losses.

To expand your burglary coverage, you can add crime insurance riders (endorsements) to your policy. These can cover a broader range of properties and increase coverage limits for burglary losses. One example is a safe burglary policy, which protects the safe and its contents from burglary.

If you’re particularly concerned about crime losses like burglary, you may consider a more comprehensive type of crime insurance called the 3D policy. The full name is the Comprehensive Disappearance, Dishonesty, and Destruction (3D) policy, which provides the most extensive coverage available, protecting against all types of crime losses, including burglary, robbery, and theft.