Your Homeowners Policy Follows You — But Not Everywhere
One of the most common misconceptions in personal insurance is that homeowners or renters coverage only applies to your house. In many cases, your homeowners policy extends some personal liability and personal property protection to you away from home. If your gear is stolen from a campsite, for example, there is a reasonable chance your homeowners policy responds up to a limit.
The catch is that the limit is often a percentage of your total personal property coverage, and high-value items like cameras, firearms, fishing equipment, or specialized camping gear may be subject to sublimits that are lower than their actual replacement value. If you have invested serious money in your outdoor kit, it is worth checking whether your current policy reflects what you would actually need to replace it.
ATVs, UTVs, and Dirt Bikes: The Coverage Gap Most Families Do Not See Coming
This is where we have the most conversations with Montana families after something has already gone wrong.
Off-road recreational vehicles are not covered under a standard auto insurance policy. They are also not fully covered under most homeowners policies, particularly when they are operated away from your property. If you ride your ATV on a trail, a campground, or public land and someone is injured or your vehicle is damaged, you may be looking at a claim with no policy to respond to it.
A dedicated ATV or recreational vehicle policy fills that gap. It typically covers the machine itself for physical damage, your liability if someone else is hurt, and medical payments for you and your passengers. For families with multiple machines, a single recreational vehicle policy can often cover all of them.
Consider a family from the Flathead Valley who loaded up two ATVs for a long weekend in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area. On the second day out, one of the machines went off a switchback trail and had to be recovered. The damage to the ATV was substantial. They had excellent homeowners coverage and a solid auto policy. Neither one covered a dollar of that loss because neither was designed to.
That is not a rare scenario in Montana. It is a predictable one.
Boats and Personal Watercraft
If you are pulling a boat to Flathead Lake, Fort Peck, or any of the reservoirs and rivers that make Montana summers what they are, a standalone boat or watercraft policy is worth having. Some homeowners policies offer limited coverage for small watercraft under a certain horsepower, but most boats used for regular recreation on Montana waters benefit from a dedicated policy that covers physical damage, liability on the water, and medical payments.
Personal watercraft like jet skis are almost universally excluded from homeowners policies and need their own coverage.
Vacation Rentals and Leaving Your Home Behind
Summer in Montana also means a lot of families heading out while their homes sit empty or, increasingly, are rented out through short-term platforms. Both situations create coverage considerations worth addressing.
If your home will be empty for an extended stretch, some policies have provisions related to vacancy that can affect certain claims. It is worth a quick conversation with your agent if you are planning a long trip.
If you are renting your home through Airbnb, VRBO, or a similar platform while you are away, your standard homeowners policy almost certainly does not cover incidents that happen during the rental period. A short-term rental endorsement or a separate policy is needed to bridge that gap.
A Quick Summer Coverage Checklist
Before the next trip, take ten minutes to ask yourself:
- Do I have a dedicated policy for my ATVs, UTVs, or dirt bikes?
- Is my boat or watercraft properly covered, including liability on the water?
- Does my homeowners policy adequately cover my outdoor gear at replacement value?
- If I am renting my home this summer, do I have coverage for that period?
- Do I have a personal umbrella policy that extends my liability protection across all of these activities?
That last one is worth highlighting. A personal umbrella policy adds a layer of liability coverage above the limits on your existing policies, typically in increments of $1 million, for a few hundred dollars a year. For active Montana families with boats, recreational vehicles, and a summer full of plans, it is one of the most efficient ways to make sure a single bad day does not become a financial crisis.
We Know How Montanans Spend Their Summers
At Leavitt Great West, our advisors are not working through a checklist from a national call center. We live here. We know what a summer weekend in Montana actually looks like, and we can help you make sure your coverage reflects the life you are actually living between June and September.
If you want to review your recreational coverage before the summer is over, reach out to our team or request a review at leavitt.com/greatwest. We have offices in Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Missoula, and across Montana.
