Your golf cart and your boat may not be covered

A HelloNation piece featuring Boca Raton insurance agent Ellie Mills looks at the vehicles Florida households use that are not cars. Golf carts, low-speed vehicles, and boats all get treated as if the existing homeowners or auto policy already handles them. Often it does not.

The gaps show up in predictable places. A homeowners policy may cover a golf cart parked at your house and offer little or nothing once you drive it down a public road or through a neighboring community, and liability for hitting a pedestrian or another cart is where the real exposure sits. Boats are the same story with a different shape: a homeowners policy may include a small watercraft up to a modest horsepower or length limit, and anything bigger needs its own policy. Marine coverage also handles things a home policy never will, such as towing on the water, fuel spill liability, and damage while the boat sits on a trailer or a lift. Storm season adds one more question worth asking, since hurricane haul-out coverage is not automatic.

Pull the declarations page for each and see what is actually listed. An independent agent can tell you which of your toys are covered, which are not, and what a separate policy costs.