How to update insurance after a move

Every personal policy is priced and written to an address. An auto policy rates the garaging location and asks that the car actually live there; a home or renters policy insures one described premises and nothing else; an umbrella sits on top of both and needs to know where they are. A move changes all of those facts at once, and a carrier that learns of the change from a claim rather than from the policyholder is entitled to ask why. The consequences range from a re-rated premium backdated to the move, through a denied claim for a car garaged somewhere the carrier never agreed to, to a lapse nobody noticed until the lender's letter arrived.

This guide is the update sequence for a household move, in the order that keeps everything in force. It distinguishes a move within Arizona, Nevada, Utah or Idaho, where the policies usually continue with an address change, from a move across a state line, where the auto policy has to be rewritten and the state's own rules on registration and verification start a clock.

What to gather before the move

Assemble these two or three weeks out, so the calls happen before the boxes do.

• The declarations page for every policy in the household: auto, home or renters, umbrella, life, and anything on a separate policy such as a boat, a motorcycle or a scheduled ring.
• The new address, the date you take possession, the date you give up the old place, and for a purchase the closing date and the lender's name and loan number.
• For a house: year built, roof age and material, square footage, construction type, distance to a fire hydrant and a staffed fire station, and whether it sits in a mapped flood zone or a wildfire interface area. The listing sheet and the inspection report have most of this.
• For a rental: the lease, which often states a minimum liability limit and may require the landlord to be named as an interested party.
• The mover's contract, if you are using one, and its stated valuation of your goods, which is not insurance and is usually low.
• A photograph inventory of the contents before they go into boxes; a separate guide covers building one, and moving is the moment it is most useful.

Step one: the house or apartment at the new address

A home policy does not move. The policy on the old house insures the old house, and the new one needs its own policy, bound before you take possession or close. For a purchase the lender requires proof of coverage before funding, so the new policy is usually bound a week or more before closing with the closing date as the effective date and the lender's mortgagee clause on the declarations page. For a rental, bind a renters policy effective the day the lease starts; the landlord's policy covers the building and nothing of yours.

Do not cancel the old home policy on moving day. If you are selling, it should run until the sale closes and title passes, because until then you own an empty house and are liable for it. If a gap opens between moving out and closing, tell the carrier the house is vacant; most home policies restrict or exclude certain losses once a house has been unoccupied for a period, and a short vacancy endorsement or the carrier's written acknowledgement keeps the coverage intact. If you are keeping the old house to rent it, it needs a landlord policy rather than a homeowner form, and that is a rewrite, not an address change.

For a move within the same state, the new home policy can often be written with the same carrier and the multi-policy discount continues without a break. For a move across a state line, the carrier may not write property in the new state, or may write it through a different company in its group at a different price. Ask for the new-state quote early enough to compare it with others before you are committed.

Step two: the auto policy and the garaging address

The garaging address is the location the carrier rated. Moving from a Scottsdale garage to a Flagstaff carport changes the theft, hail, collision and uninsured-driver picture, and the premium follows in either direction. For a move within the state, call the carrier with the new address and the date, and the policy is endorsed mid-term with a premium adjustment. Do this by moving day, not at renewal; a car garaged for months at an undisclosed address is a misrepresentation in the carrier's eyes.

For a move across a state line the policy cannot simply be re-addressed. Auto policies are filed with each state's insurance regulator and written on that state's forms; Utah's no-fault personal injury protection, for instance, has no equivalent on an Arizona policy. The carrier issues a new policy in the new state, or, if it does not write there, you find a new carrier. Bind the new-state policy effective on or before the day the car starts living at the new address, and cancel the old one effective the same day, in writing. Each state gives new residents a period to register the vehicle and obtain a local licence, and registration requires proof of a policy written for that state, so the insurance has to come first. Each state's motor vehicle agency publishes the period allowed for new residents.

Check three things on the new-state declarations page before the old policy ends: that every vehicle and driver moved with you, that the liability limits are at least what you carried and not the new state's minimum by default, and that uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is still on the policy at the limit you chose. Carriers quote the new state's floor unless told otherwise.

Step three: umbrella, life, and the policies people forget

An umbrella policy lists the underlying auto and home policies it sits on and the address it covers. Tell the umbrella carrier about the new address and, if the auto or home carrier changed, the new policy numbers and limits; an umbrella that cannot verify its underlying limits has a gap. If the umbrella and the underlying policies are with the same carrier the update is one call, and if the auto has moved to a new carrier it may be worth moving the umbrella too.

Life insurance does not change with an address, but the carrier needs the new one to deliver premium notices and, one day, to find the beneficiary. Then walk the list of separate policies: a motorcycle, a boat, an RV in storage, scheduled jewellery, and a pet policy that may price differently in the new zip code. A boat kept at a marina in Lake Havasu and moved to a driveway in Boise has changed its risk entirely.

Step four: moving day itself

Your contents are insured while in transit under most home and renters policies, but subject to the policy's off-premises limit, which is usually a fraction of the full contents limit, and only against the perils the policy names. Breakage from careless loading is not a named peril; theft from the truck overnight usually is. A professional mover's liability is set by its contract and is typically a small amount per pound unless you buy its full-value protection, which is the mover's promise to repair or replace and is separate from your insurance. For a household with expensive contents, ask the carrier for a transit endorsement or check that scheduled items are covered wherever they are, which is the usual rule for a personal articles floater.

During the overlap, when you hold keys to both places, both policies are in force and the contents are covered wherever they sit, within each policy's terms. A rental truck is the one common gap: your auto policy's coverage for a rented vehicle varies by carrier and often excludes trucks above a weight, so the rental counter's damage waiver is worth reading rather than waving away.

Common mistakes

Each of these comes up after a move, usually at the worst possible time.

• Leaving the garaging address unchanged until renewal because the premium would go up. The premium goes up anyway, backdated, and the claim in between is at risk.
• Cancelling the old home policy on moving day when the house does not close for three more weeks.
• Accepting the new state's minimum liability limits on the rewritten auto policy without noticing they are lower than what you carried.
• Registering the car in the new state on the old state's insurance card. The registration office rejects it, or accepts it and the state's verification system flags the mismatch later.
• Forgetting the umbrella, which quietly loses its footing when the underlying policies change carriers.
• Assuming the mover's valuation is insurance. It is a limitation of the mover's liability, and a low one.
• Moving to a wildfire or flood area without asking whether the new home policy excludes or surcharges those perils; flood is never in a standard home policy and needs its own.

A worked example

Suppose a couple moves from a rented apartment in Reno to a house they are buying in Meridian, closing on the tenth of the month and taking possession the same day. Their Nevada renters policy has a $30,000 contents limit and their auto policy covers two cars with $250,000 per person liability limits. Three weeks out they bind an Idaho homeowner policy effective the tenth, with the lender's clause, at say $1,400 a year; the lender receives the declarations page and funds. On the eighth they bind an Idaho auto policy for both cars at the same $250,000 limits, effective the tenth, and email the Nevada carrier a signed cancellation of the auto and renters policies effective the eleventh, one day of overlap. The truck is loaded on the ninth and unloaded on the tenth; the contents travel under the renters policy's off-premises limit, say $3,000, so they buy the mover's full-value option for $200. Within the period Idaho allows they register both cars on the new ID cards. The Nevada refund comes to about $180. Nothing was uninsured for a day. The figures are illustrative.

How to use this

If you are moving into or within Arizona, Nevada, Utah or Idaho, send the current declarations pages and the new address a few weeks ahead and we line the dates up: the new home or renters policy against closing or the lease, the auto rewrite against the registration window, and the umbrella and everything else behind them. If the current carrier writes in the new state and its rewrite is fairly priced, the advice is to stay with it and change the address, and we say so.