Protect Your Property with a Home Inventory
Posted on Tue, Jan 04, 2011
What is a home inventory?
A home inventory is a prepared list of personal items located in and around your home. This includes property stored elsewhere, perhaps in a storage area, garage or even a second home.
Why is a home inventory important?
Maintaining a room-by-room inventory of your personal property can be helpful if you ever have an insurance claim. Preparing a list before a loss occurs, whether it’s a burglary or major natural disaster, is easier than trying to compile a list from memory afterward. A detailed inventory also can help speed up the claims process and help prove tax-deductible, uninsured losses.
Tips for taking inventory of home possessions:
√ Make your inventory as complete and detailed as possible. Your insurance company will require a detailed list of your personal property before paying you for any losses.
√ List purchase dates, values, serial numbers, and brand names for items when possible. Keep receipts for expensive items.
√ Keep a detailed inventory of your clothing and accessories, including shoes and jewelry. Attach extra sheets to your inventory to include longer lists for these and other items.
√ Photograph or videotape each room in your home, including inside closets, storage buildings, the attic, and the garage. Open drawers and photograph the contents. Label the photographs or videotape with the date they were taken.
√ Remember to update your inventory regularly when you make new purchases.
√ Keep your inventory, photographs and videotapes, a copy of your insurance policy, and any appraisal reports in a secure spot. Consider keeping a copy in a secure place away from your home, such as in a safe deposit box, at work, or at the house of a friend or relative.
√ Save your photographs, videotapes, and any documents on a computer. Consider keeping the items in your e-mail archives so you can access them wherever you can log onto a computer.
You can conduct a home inventory using software such as Know Your Stuff from the Insurance Information Institute or you can simply complete a home inventory checklist*. Either way, the inventory will take time to compile, but the time and frustration it may save you later will more than make up for it.
Review your policy’s personal property coverage limit annually, and be sure the limits are high enough to cover the items on your home inventory. Personal property coverage pays for theft, damage, or destruction of the contents of your house.
Coverage for items such as jewelry, furs, and artwork is limited. You may be able to buy more coverage for an extra premium.
* To view the home inventory checklist, you will need Adobe Reader. To download it for free, please click here.