A vehicle is stolen about every three minutes in Canada and Statistics Canada discovered in 2005 that property taken from inside cars was the third highest type of property crime. You may believe that all the anti-theft devices and other security measures would lower this statistic; however, today automobile theft is still among the top crimes in Canada.

Most people know that their belongings inside a vehicle are at a high risk of being stolen, the sad part is that most of these items are not covered on your auto insurance.

Now, the reason you should have property insurance on your car is that if someone breaks into your car and steals anything at all, these items will more than likely never be recovered.

Personal items inside a stolen vehicle are usually gone when and if the stolen vehicle is found. With auto insurance, you are covered for the loss of your car and damage that occurred in the theft. On the other hand, all the stuff inside is not covered. This means that if you have your purse, wallet, laptop, CD’s, sunglasses, suitcase, portable GPS, and your iPod then you will have to find the money to recover these items unless you have property insurance.

In most cases, if you have property insurance on your home then you are covered. However, most renters do not consider property insurance and this is one thing they certainly should include in their insurance coverage.

In the majority of cases, homeowners have personal items covered in their property insurance policy. One thing you must realize though is that all policies have exclusions.

Often personal property away from the home is only insured for up to 10% of the amount of your insurance or $1,500 whichever is greater. Now for a stolen car you will have two claims – one for the loss or damage to your car and the other one for the personal belongings. Yes, this means two claims on your insurance. If the belongings are not truly worth filing a claim, then you may wish to forget filing on the personal belongings. You will also be responsible for two deductibles.

Some insurance companies may ask for proof of forced entry before they will pay for loss or damages. If you left the keys in the car or the car was left unlocked, you may be in trouble recovering your loss.