Home Inventory Programs...

[sengsational]

Your homeowner's policy will tell you all of that stuff, but it's a pain to understand.

There will be a section in your policy that says you need to submit a list of stuff, and what details need to be specified. This is probably where the good insurance company would come in handy (they might not be quite as picky).

In my policy, I have a "replacement cost" rider. But the first thing it does is lay out furs, cameras, musical equipment, silverware, golf equipment (!) as needing to be "specifically insured" in order to get replacement coverage. Then they say antiques, fine art, memorabilia, collectors items, and stored items (that aren't in active use) are all are ineligible for the replacement cost settlement method.

So if you have anything left that didn't get excluded, they credit you with what a replacement would cost today. So if you got a plain cookie sheet in 1950 for $0.25, they'd credit you with whatever a plain cookie sheet costs nowadays (but not an "upgraded" one, unless that's all that was available). If you decide not to replace something, you can still get credit for it, as long as it's less than some value specified in your policy (mine is $500).

I just went to my insurance company web site and found a PDF of my homeowner's policy. YMMV, but probably not by much.

 

[RunningBum]

My policy is written for personal property up to 70% of the value of my dwelling. There is no way on earth I have anything close to that. My contents are pretty low value compared to the value of my house. I don't believe for a second that my insurance company will pay that amount in a total loss. What they may do is make an offer without me itemizing the contents, so I'm not going to offer to show them the videos I just made this afternoon unless I feel like they are coming up short after all attempts at negotiation. I may be vague but I'm not going to deliberately misrepresent my contents. I'll point out some of the bigger things like having a finished basement with pool table and home theatre setup, and leave out that I didn't have fine china or much artwork, and hope they extrapolate. I suppose what I should do is total up what I think it would cost to restore all my contents so I know a good offer from a bad, and whether to break out my inventory list and videos.


If someone has a policy that will pay the personal property limit without any proof, good for them, but I didn't know that type of policy existed. I've only heard about "actual cash value" (meaning your 10 year old couch isn't worth much) and "replacement value" (meaning they'll buy you a brand new couch of similar quality to what you had when it was new).


Can't say I'm an expert but I did grow up in an insurance family, so I have some awareness.

 

[Geld ist Freiheit]

My policy is written for personal property up to 70% of the value of my dwelling. There is no way on earth I have anything close to that. My contents are pretty low value compared to the value of my house. .

Went through this recently. The value of "the contents" was greater than what I paid for the house. Even using the purchase prices, I struggled to get to 1/5 of their number.

I told her I wasn't going to pay for that level of coverage because they would be getting paid based on a level of risk they were never going to incur.

She went on about bundled this and packaged that. I stated that what I was hearing was that their company did not have an insurance product that met my needs. I went on to say that I'd found the same coverage at a competitor for $500 less. Suddenly, her pencil got sharp. In the end, they came in $500 under the competition, a full $1000 less than they were going to charge me initially.

 

[Koolau]

My gut tells me my insurance co. considers my 2 to 15 year old stuff as worthless. I guess if you pay extra, you can maybe get "replacement" but I wouldn't count on it. I'm sure some folks here have some stuff worth insuring, but I wouldn't even have insurance if my condo/HOA didn't insist on it. Other than the pipes between floors, I don't think I need insurance, but have to maintain a policy to live there.

Anything with actual value (let's say a coin collection or an antique clock) requires a separate rider at a huge premium. So I view the whole contents insurance thing as maybe one step above a scam. Relayed elsewhere that turning in one claim to my home owners insurance got me a warning to "not let it happen again."

If the pipes break, that's a biggie. Other than that, I just assume my stuff is junk which I still find useful. YMMV

YMMV

 

[sengsational]

I'd say that insuring the contents of your house is indeed a marginal bet. Especially if you've got mostly older stuff and you don't have the replacement rider.

That being said, I do have contents insured and do have the replacement rider within a package add-on that costs $57/yr.

My thinking was that if I did have a loss, it would be pure torture for me to be expected to re-buy my stuff at the thrift store, which is basically all the normal contents insurance is going to do for you. I thought that if I was already upset about a loss, I'd like to just go online and have my stuff, delivered new, and not be further upset by getting pennies on the dollar.

A long while back, I did have an apparent lighting strike, because several computers, answering machine, and I think some other 110V device all quit working on the same day. So I made a list, searched for replacements, and it was approved by the insurance company. I still had the stress of migrating the data, but just having drop-in replacements without additional cost beyond the deductible reduced the angst at that point in my life.

 

[braumeister]

I have my personal property insured for 50% of my home cost, with a replacement cost rider. The way it's written is they will only pay the actual cash value until the property is either repaired or replaced. Then they will pay the rest. So you can't just pocket the money and not replace things.