Homeowners' insurance covers key landscaping components such as trees, shrubs, and other plants. If these items are destroyed in a covered event, the policy may pay to replace them. Your policy can also pay for the cost of removing damaged trees from your property if a covered hazard caused the damage. However, your landscaping gets fewer homeowners protection against covered perils compared to your house or garage.

Here's a look at how and when home insurance policies cover damage to landscaping elements.

When Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Landscaping Damage?

Your homeowners' insurance policy covers any landscaping damage resulting from a covered peril. However, your landscaping is covered for fewer hazards than your dwelling or other property you own. If you lose your trees due to covered disasters, your home insurance policy can pay for their removal and replacement. These include:

• Explosion, fire, or lightning
• Civil commotion
• Theft or vandalism
• Aircraft accidents

However, your policy won't cover your trees or shrubs for damage caused by wind or storm. While home insurance will cover your main dwelling, garage, and other structures for these common perils, it doesn't extend the same coverage to your front or back yard plants. However, you can file a claim for tree removal due to wind or hail damage. It's one of the protections available under your homeowners' insurance policy. Standard home insurance policies don't pay for landscaping damage to other causes like:

• Pest infestation
• Flood (you'll need a separate flood insurance policy to protect your garden and lawn against flood damage)
• Covered perils like fire or vandalism if you're using your landscaping for commercial purposes

Keep in mind that the full range of covered landscaping damage claims can vary from insurer to insurer. For example, some carriers cover the replacement of damaged landscaping, but others will only reimburse the cost of removing dead plants. Another vital point is that your landscaping is only covered as part of your insurable home. If you grow trees or a garden elsewhere (outside of your residential property), you can't have the landscaping covered under your homeowners' insurance policy.

How Much Landscaping Coverage Do You Get?

It's important that you're aware of the limits that apply to landscaping coverage. Most homeowners' policies cover landscaping for only 5% of the total dwelling coverage. Also, most standard policies apply a limit of $500 per item, meaning that any covered damage for a single tree beyond $500 will be paid for out of pocket.

Extending Coverage for Your Lawn and Garden

You can buy an endorsement to close some of the coverage gaps left by your standard homeowners' insurance policy. This makes sense when you have extensive and expensive landscaping that could expose you to significant financial loss if a covered peril damaged your plants, shrubs, or trees. A typical endorsement can extend coverage from $500 to $1,000. In some scenarios, you can even have a higher limit than $1,000. If you need to cover any costly gardening and landscaping equipment that you own, you can purchase an endorsement for coverage of these, too. This additional coverage can cost about $50 to $100 annually, depending on your coverage requirements. This is how you can fully protect your landscaping with homeowners insurance. Would you like to explore additional coverage options for your home and personal property? If so, engage the experts at Little & Sons Insurance Services right away. We offer California residents reliable coverage options to fully protect their homes.