Value appraisals

When taking out household insurance the insurer will do their best to work out the most accurate policy that they can. This will make sure that the premiums are best suited to cover the value of your home and your much-treasured possessions. Insurance companies don’t want to be defrauded, so it is important that if you are making a claim you have the evidence to back that claim up.

One of the best ways of ensuring that you are properly insured is to have a home inventory. This is a list of each and every one of your possessions, preferably as exhaustive as possible. It is unlikely that you would be able to remember everything that is in your house, particularly if you were under the trauma of having suffered a large-scale burglary or lost some of your possessions to a fire.

Whilst keeping a home inventory is relatively simple, if you want to make sure that you are completely covered there are some other steps that you should take. Firstly, keep more than one copy of the inventory, and ensure that at least one copy is kept somewhere other than the house. It’s not much use if it’s been reduced to cinders. Leave a copy with a lawyer, or with a bank if you can, or with a trusted friend. Without wishing to cast aspersions on insurance companies it is possible that if they have a copy of your inventory they may have lost it when they most need it, it is best to be on the safe side.

Secondly, it might be a good idea to take an alternative form of inventory. Whilst a list is useful, (particularly if it is comprehensive and involves all the details like receipts, contracts, serial numbers, and valuations), there are other methods that you can use that may save time and also help you save money. One possibility is taking a lot of pictures all around the house, so that aside from the inventory you have added proof that the items that you claim you own were actually in your possession. Alternatively you could keep a video record stored away somewhere, anything that can prove the veracity of your claim will allow the insurance company to pay out quicker once they are satisfied that the claim is accurate.

Getting home insurance is largely a straightforward process, and a comprehensive policy is vitally important. With so much value tied up today in housing and worldly possessions, one accident could have a devastating impact. It’s best to make sure that you are protected against it as fully as possible.