You have options when it comes to protecting your valuables. All BCAA Home Insurance includes coverage for certain valuable items as part of your base Personal Property coverage. The amount that may be reimbursed however will differ depending on the limits you select, and therefore, based on your valuables (or lack thereof) you may want to adjust your Personal Property with Special Limits.

Beyond this, you still have the option to get extra coverage for your valuables by adding specific High Value Items onto your policy that will be reimbursed separately.

Do I have to adjust my limits and what is the difference between increasing my limits and adding separate high value items?

 If you do not have any high value items, then you can feel free to keep the default that is associated with the package you choose or reduce the limits to the basic coverage for Personal Property with Special Limits.

If you do have high value items, the choice here is whether you want to increase your coverage limits or to add your valuables as high value items. High Value Items are only added to your policy if you explicitly do so, and your coverage will be for the item you specifically add.

The biggest distinction between having your high value items covered by your personal property or listing them as scheduled High Value Items is how claims may be handled. If a claims scenario arises, and you had chosen to protect your valuables by the Personal Property aggregate coverage, you would be required to pay the deductible on your policy, and the item would have to be replaced in kind, rather than receiving a cash settlement up to the limits you selected. If however, you had listed the valuables as itemized High Value Items on your policy (so separate to adjusting your Personal Property limits), you would not have to pay any deductible and you could receive a cash settlement.

More on Personal Property with Special Limits

When getting an estimate, you will have been asked to enter a value that would cover all your personal belonging in case that your home and the stuff in it was damaged. The personal property with special limits will provide coverage as a portion of that base coverage up to the selected limits.

There is a combined limit and a category limit, but they are linked, so, increasing (or decreasing) one will increase (or decrease) the other.

The category limit is the maximum you can claim for goods that fall within any particular category.

The combined limit is the maximum you can claim across categories. If your base Personal Property coverage is lower than the Combined Limit you select, your new Combined Limit will be set to whatever your Personal Property coverage limit is.

Valuables that fall under the following categories are included as part of the Personal Property with Special Limits coverage.

High Value Items

Depending on your circumstances or valuable items, sometimes scheduling these (adding them on their own to the policy) is the better route to take. If you would like to do this, you will have the ability to do so before you finalize the online buy flow.


We’re always happy to help, and if you would like an explanation above and beyond this, or have any other questions, feel free to contact us either by chat or phone at 1.888.268.2222.