What Does Farmers Home Insurance Cover: Exclusions and Add-Ons

A Farmers home insurance policy covers six core things: the house itself, detached structures like sheds and fences, personal belongings, liability if someone is hurt or their property damaged, medical bills for injured guests, and the extra living expenses you incur if your home becomes uninhabitable after a covered loss.¹ It does not cover floods, earthquakes, gradual damage, or most water that comes from the ground up or backs up through drains, though some of those gaps can be closed with endorsements.

The Six Core Coverages

Every Farmers homeowners policy is built on the same six coverages, each identified by a letter on the declarations page. The dollar limits depend on the package you buy and the choices you make, but the structure is the same across the lineup.

Dwelling (Coverage A) pays to repair or rebuild the home and anything permanently attached to it, such as an attached garage or porch, after a covered event like fire, windstorm, lightning, or hail. The limit is generally set to the estimated cost to rebuild from scratch at current prices.¹
Other Structures (Coverage B) covers detached structures on the property, including fences, sheds, and detached garages. The default is typically 10% of the dwelling limit.²
Personal Property (Coverage C) helps replace furniture, electronics, clothing, and other belongings if they are stolen or damaged by a covered peril. The default limit usually falls between 50% and 70% of dwelling coverage.²
Loss of Use (Coverage D) pays for hotel bills, temporary rent, and meals while a covered loss makes the home unlivable. The typical starting limit is around 20% of dwelling coverage.³
Personal Liability (Coverage E) pays if you are found legally responsible for accidentally injuring someone or damaging their property. Standard limits run from $100,000 to $500,000.²
Medical Payments to Others (Coverage F) covers medical bills for a guest injured on the property, regardless of fault. Limits typically run from $1,000 to $5,000.²

Liability and medical payments can also reach some off-premises situations. Coverage E can apply to personal-injury claims such as libel or malicious prosecution if the declarations page includes that option. Common carve-outs apply, including business activities, intentional acts, and injuries involving motor vehicles or aircraft.⁴

Caps on High-Value Belongings

Coverage C protects your belongings broadly, but Farmers imposes internal sub-limits on categories that are easy to steal or hard to value. These caps apply even when your overall personal property limit is much higher. Under the Farmers Next Generation policy form, the per-loss sub-limits include:⁴

Jewelry, watches, precious stones, and furs: $1,000 per article and $5,000 total for theft
Firearms: $3,000 total for theft
Silverware, goldware, and platinumware: $3,000 total for theft
Imported rugs, carpets, and tapestries: $5,000 per article and $10,000 total for theft
Money, gift cards, coins, and metals: $200 total
Securities, deeds, and stamps: $1,500 total
Trading cards and comic books: $200 per item and $2,500 total
Electronic data processing equipment: $5,000 for hardware and $1,000 for data restoration
Watercraft including trailers and equipment: $3,000 total
Business property: $2,500 on-premises and $500 off-premises

If you own valuables that exceed any of these caps, Farmers sells optional valuable item coverages that raise the limits for specific categories such as jewelry and artwork.³

How Payouts Are Calculated

Two settings on the declarations page quietly determine how much you actually collect after a loss.

The first is actual cash value versus replacement cost. Under actual cash value, the payout reflects the item’s replacement cost minus depreciation for wear and tear, and the Farmers policy explicitly allows depreciation of both materials and labor.⁴ To collect full replacement cost without a depreciation deduction, your declarations page needs to include the contents replacement cost extension.

The second is the roof. Roof damage from covered perils such as wind and hail falls under dwelling coverage, but the Smart Plan form applies a scheduled roof payment table that reduces the claim based on the roof’s age and material. A composition-shingle roof that is 30 or more years old may receive only 25% of the repair or replacement cost.⁵ Damage from normal aging or neglected maintenance is excluded entirely.

Some Farmers policies also carry a separate wind and hail deductible, often set as a percentage of the home’s insured value rather than a flat dollar amount.⁶ In storm-prone regions, that structure can push your out-of-pocket cost well above a standard deductible, so check the declarations page for a separate wind or hail figure.

What Farmers Home Insurance Does Not Cover

The policy’s exclusions matter as much as its coverages, and a few are broad enough to leave homeowners badly exposed if they are not understood up front.

Floods and Earthquakes

Neither flood damage nor earthquake damage is covered under any standard Farmers homeowners policy.⁷ Farmers does not sell flood insurance at all, so homeowners need a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer.⁸ Earthquake coverage can be added as an endorsement in most states, priced on the home’s location, construction, age, and whether it has been retrofitted. In California, earthquake policies are issued through the California Earthquake Authority and purchased through a Farmers agent.⁹

Maintenance and Gradual Damage

Farmers will not pay for damage that results from a failure to maintain the property. The exclusion sweeps in wear and tear, rust, mold, wet or dry rot, pest infestations such as termites and rodents, settling or cracking foundations, and root pressure on structures. Faulty design, workmanship, or construction is also excluded, so a builder’s mistake that surfaces years later is generally not a covered event.¹⁰

Water Damage: What’s In and What’s Out

Water damage is where the fine print bites hardest. A standard Farmers policy covers sudden, accidental water events such as a pipe bursting inside the house. It excludes surface water, rain-driven flooding, sewer or drain backup, sump pump overflow, and water seeping in from below ground level.¹⁰ Protection against sewer backup or sump failure requires the optional water backup and sump overflow endorsement.³

Other Standard Exclusions

Additional exclusions include intentional damage (the policy is voided if the insured arranges a loss), war and government action, nuclear hazards, ordinance or law enforcement costs unless endorsed, utility failures originating off-premises, and theft or vandalism if the home has been vacant for more than 30 consecutive days.¹⁰

Add-Ons That Fill the Gaps

Many of the biggest gaps in the base policy can be closed with endorsements for an extra premium:

Water backup and sump overflow, which covers damage from sewer or drain backup and sump pump failure.³
Valuable item coverages, which raise limits for high-value belongings like jewelry and artwork.
Identity fraud expense coverage, which reimburses costs related to restoring a stolen identity.
Matching of undamaged property, which pays to replace undamaged siding or flooring so repaired areas match the rest.
Residence glass coverage, which waives the deductible on accidental glass breakage.
Guaranteed replacement cost, available with the Premier tier, which pays the full rebuilding cost even if it exceeds the policy limit.¹
Umbrella coverage, which adds liability protection in $1 million increments up to $10 million.¹
Earthquake coverage, available as an add-on in most states.⁹

Farmers Fire Insurance Company also sells a bundled Protector Plus Endorsement Package that rolls identity recovery, refrigerated property coverage, water backup, home systems protection, increased tree debris removal limits, and increased special limits of liability into a single add-on.¹¹

Choosing a Coverage Tier

Farmers packages its homeowners coverage into three tiers under the Smart Plan Home brand, letting buyers match protection to budget.¹²

Standard is aimed at first-time or budget-conscious homeowners and provides essential coverages at lower limits.
Enhanced is designed for established homeowners who want higher limits and additional built-in features.
Premier is the top tier, with the highest limits and Guaranteed Replacement Cost built in. Premier is not available in California.

In California, where Premier is unavailable, agents may offer the Farmers Next Generation package instead.¹² At any tier, you can adjust individual coverage limits up or down and add endorsements to match the risks your base policy leaves open.

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Farmers Insurance. Homeowners Insurance Coverage
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Oklahoma Insurance Department. Farmers Next Generation Homeowners Policy
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Farmers Insurance. Hail Preparation Insights
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Farmers Insurance. Does Home Insurance Cover Natural Disasters
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U.S. News. Farmers Homeowners Insurance Review
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Farmers Insurance. Earthquake Insurance
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Oklahoma Insurance Department. Farmers Special Form Homeowners Policy
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Farmers Fire Insurance Company. Protector Plus Endorsement Package
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Farmers Insurance. Farmers Smart Plan Home Brochure