Devoted to the Insurance industry and all thing related

Yes, you read that correctly you need to protect your homeowners’ policy from burglars ruining the entire situation.  Your homeowners’ policy could become worthless if a burglar were to ransack your home and steal various prized possessions.  This is due to the fact that few homeowners document with photos or video their possessions and the assigned values.

The process of combing through all items worth stealing or at least worth something to you can be tedious to say the least.  However, if you’re making a claim and have next to no documentation about the value of stolen items then your policy becomes fairly useless.

According to the InsWeb Blog 1 out of 39 homes last year were victims of a burglary.  They posit what I just mentioned by asking, “Can you accurately list from memory everything in your house? How many necklaces and rings do you have; DVDs in your movie library; and exactly what type of digital camera is it?”  They recommend doing inventory alongside your annual review of your homeowners’ policy.  

 

InsWeb recommends the following:

• Try to get serial numbers when possible.  
• When, where, and for what price you purchased each item.
• Previous victims will tell you that pictures and videos of the larger ticket items and any supporting receipts are invaluable in the process of making a theft claim on your policy.
  

Bottom line is to document, document, document, no matter how tedious or time consuming it may seem.  That $300 digital camera or new $1,500 flat screen will be a little safer with proper documentation.  It’s the annoying little things that seem to make a big difference in these types of situations.