Home Insurance Personal Property Values

[mountainsoft]

I was looking over our home insurance policy and saw they had assigned a "personal property" value of $238K. I'm not sure how they came up with that number, but it made me curious how many personal items we really have and what they are worth.

So, I went through every single item in every room of our house, garage, shed, and even outdoors. Yeah, too much time on my hands, but I didn't realize what I was getting into. I just made a rough guess on each items value, rounded up to the nearest $100. I did do some online searching for a few items I was unsure of, but this was just a rough estimate anyway. I didn't need exact values, just ballpark figures was close enough.

Even in rooms I didn't think we had much in, it was surprising how it all added up. For instance, our bathroom contained blow dryers, curling irons, towels, brushes, mirrors, garbage can, rugs, cleaners, wall decorations, and various toiletries (toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.). We easily racked up over $2000 in just that bathroom alone.

When I was done I had a list over eight pages long, totaling about $140K. That's considerably lower then the $238K on our insurance policy, but I'm sure I missed items in the process.

More so than the actual dollar value, it was amazing to see how much "stuff" a person collects over their life time. Or how much we use in our home on a daily basis without thinking about it. Or how many items we have already replaced two or three times. Or items we've previously discarded over the years.

I think we live a fairly minimalist lifestyle, but it was still eye opening to itemize each and every thing. Even then, I kind of just grouped some items together, such food in the kitchen, or hanging clothes in our closet, rather than estimate each individual shirt.

At the same time, if we ever lost our home to a fire or other disaster, we probably wouldn't replace many of these items. Some are sentimental and can't be replaced. Some are "luxury" items that are nice to have, but don't use enough to buy again. And if some things like my woodworking tools were lost, I probably wouldn't feel like starting over again at this stage in life. That hobby would end, or be massively downsized.

I personally built the vast majority of our furniture, so we would probably just buy some cheap replacement if we had to start over. I wouldn't have the time (or tools) to build it all again. Of course, purchased items would likely cost more than I paid to build them (or lower quality at the same cost).

I can't say the list will serve much purpose, but it was interesting to compile anyway. It feel the need to purge after this exercise.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I just take the lowest our insurance company can allow us, which is not that low, and run with it.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Back about 10 years ago, I maintained a pretty accurate inventory of all my possessions including scanned receipts (when I had them) and photographs. I mostly did it for a project. I used a software which generated a nice report on the results. But over time, I stopped the tracking. It is pretty amazing how fast it can add up when you have a houseful. Like you, my insurance covers more than I own, I'm sure.

 

[MichaelB]

If your appliances are built-in they are part of dwelling coverage, but if they are plug-in, like many refrigerators, washers & dryers, TV,s and such, they are covered under personal property sections of homeowners insurance.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Personal Property (coverage C) is typically a percentage of the amount of coverage on your house (coverage A). It used to be 50% but now many companies have increased it to 60-75%.

It will likely never cost an insurer that much since most folks are adequately covered at 50% or so. Clothing adds up fast, and it is easily damaged in a fire/water loss.

Whatever you do on your Homeowners Insurance make sure you have Replacement Cost coverage on your personal property, its not an automatic.

Keep in mind Replacement Cost coverage only applies to the property you actually replace within a certain amount of time. Otherwise it is Actual Cash Value, subject to depreciation.

 

[pb4uski]

Just went through this getting insurance for the new home that we bought. The coverage limit was a percentage of the policy coverage... and a ridiculous percentage at that. Much higher than the true value of the contents, and I know because we are currently furnishing the house and we won't come anywhere near even $50k and the contents minimum limit is multiples of that.

 

[Sunset]

I should probably walk around the house with my cell phone on video recording. As I'd never remember all the stuff in each room. Plus it's proof it was there.

 

[karel]

I always wonder about this: Let's say the house burns down, and you lose all these personal possessions. How do you get reimbursed from the insurance company for this? Most people have no records of all the stuff they own -- but even if you did, the records would likely be in the house and destroyed. Anybody know if the insurance company requires you to prove that you owned $100k or $200k or whatever of furniture, appliances, art, decorations, clothes, etc.?

 

[mountainsoft]

If your appliances are built-in they are part of dwelling coverage, but if they are plug-in, like many refrigerators, washers & dryers, TV,s and such, they are covered under personal property sections of homeowners insurance.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about those, so I just assumed every appliance was personal property.

 

[mountainsoft]

I always wonder about this: Let's say the house burns down, and you lose all these personal possessions. How do you get reimbursed from the insurance company for this? Most people have no records of all the stuff they own -- but even if you did, the records would likely be in the house and destroyed. Anybody know if the insurance company requires you to prove that you owned $100k or $200k or whatever of furniture, appliances, art, decorations, clothes, etc.?

I wonder about that too. It's one of the things I'm hoping to ask our agent tomorrow.

I generally keep receipts (digitally) for most bigger items (appliances, electronics, power tools, etc.), but the vast majority of our stuff is little items we have no receipts for (clothing, food, towels, decorations, bedding, etc.).

Depending on what kind of proof they want, I might need to run around with a camera or video to have as documentation.

 

[Aerides]

Basically, if you turned your house upside down and gave it a shake, everything that falls out is under personal property. So... not the kitchen counter, but yes the toaster.

Default for most policies is half the home value. Then there's also replacement vs. cost. We got ours down to the minimum because if the place burned down and we had to move or rebuild, we can refurnish quite nicely on far less than half the house cost.

Photos usually work just fine. Unless you are trying to get $20k for a 10 year old couch, I'm sure they have some standard reimbursements for your zip code and home values.

Expenses jewelry or collectibles should really have their own appraisal and policy.