The boat on the driveway is not household contents, and the trailer is not a car.
A home policy is built around a house and the things kept in it. Watercraft and recreational equipment are optional cover, not automatic cover, and the liability that comes with putting a boat on the water is a different question again. Both are easy to arrange and easy to forget.
Tell us what you own Read the short answer firstWatercraft cover has to be added on purpose.
Liability afloat is not household liability.
An RV used as a home is a different policy.
Does home insurance cover a boat or an RV?
Not by default. The Insurance Bureau of Canada lists watercraft and recreational equipment among the optional coverages, which means somebody has to ask for them and somebody has to price them. If nobody did, they are not there.
Where a small allowance does exist, it is usually written for a canoe in the garage rather than a boat with an engine on it. The bigger gap is liability. A collision on the water, a wake that damages a moored boat, a passenger hurt on board. None of that is household liability, and none of it belongs to the tow vehicle’s policy either.
Recreational things move, and that is what makes them awkward. A trailer is towed by a vehicle, stored at a house, and used somewhere else entirely. An RV is a vehicle when it is moving and something closer to a dwelling when it is parked for a season. Each of those states can sit under a different policy, and the question that matters is which one applies at the moment something goes wrong. Read the Insurance Bureau of Canada on seasonal property and optional cover (opens in a new tab).
Four things owners assume are already covered.
The hull and the engine
The most valuable single item, and the one most often left on a home policy that was never asked to carry it. Value it honestly, including the motor and the electronics.
Liability on the water
Other boats, docks, swimmers and passengers. This is the cover that turns a bad afternoon into something survivable, and it is the one most often missing.
The trailer itself
It is towed on public roads, so it interacts with your vehicle policy, and it is stored on your property, so it interacts with the home one. Neither automatically owns it.
Where it sleeps in winter
Stored at home, at a marina, on a friend’s field, under a tarp. Storage location changes the risk and sometimes changes who is responsible if it is damaged.
Three summers, three ordinary purchases.
The boat bought in May
Paid for privately, towed home, on the water the same weekend. The home policy was never told, and the small watercraft allowance inside it was written for something a tenth of the value.
The RV used for a season
Parked at a site from spring to autumn and lived in for weeks at a time. Insured as a vehicle, used as a home, and the contents inside it belonged to neither policy.
The trailer that came loose
The damage to the trailer was one question. The damage it did to the car behind was a liability question, and the answer sat in a policy nobody had checked.
The questions owners ask in the spring.
It is a small aluminium boat with a little motor. Do I need anything?
Often the liability more than the hull. A small boat can still injure somebody or damage another vessel, and that is the part a home policy was never written to answer for.
Does my car insurance cover the trailer I tow?
Towing and damage are separate questions, and the answer depends on the trailer and the vehicle. Tell us both and we will check rather than guess.
I only use the RV two months a year. Can I pause the rest?
Often yes, and it is worth asking, but be careful about what stops with it. Cover for theft or storm damage while it is parked is usually the part you still want.
My friend borrows the boat. Is he covered?
Tell us before he does. Who may operate it is a real term in a marine policy, and a borrower who is not permitted is a claim waiting to be argued about.
The boat is kept at a marina. Does that change things?
Yes, usually for the better on some risks and for the worse on others. The marina may also require you to hold liability cover, so ask what they expect before the season starts.
Two that sit next to this on the same site: who must be listed on your ICBC policy, and what a house policy misses on an acreage.
Not the question you had? Tell us what you own and a licensed person will answer it. Use the short contact form.
Add it before the season, not after the weekend.
Watercraft and recreational cover is quick to arrange and cheap next to the thing it protects. The hard part is remembering to ask.