If you came home to find your place had been robbed, would you know what you lost?
After a break-in and robbery, one of the things the police will ask you is what was taken.
Your insurance company will also ask you the value of the items lost. When you file your claim, youʼll need to have receipts, appraisals, or evidence of ownership for the items lost.
This is where a home inventory can help you.
Big items
For any big items, such as computers, jewelry, silver, and so on, youʼd be very smart to keep your receipts and other paperwork readily available.
Inventory for backup
Having a home inventory of these big items can be a valuable backup to the receipts and paperwork. If for any reason, you canʼt find the paperwork, the inventory supports your claim.
Inventory for everything else
A home inventory helps with smaller items, too.
If iPods, cell phones, less-valuable jewelry, game systems, DVDs, and so on go missing, you may have a harder time finding receipts. But, a home inventory goes a long way toward demonstrating to the insurance company that you did, in fact, own these items.
It will also help you figure out whatʼs missing. You can run down your checklist after a break-in and see whatʼs gone. In the stress immediately following and even days after a robbery, you can overlook things. The inventory will help you.
Home inventories will also help you with bigger losses, such as a fire or a burglary while youʼre on vacation or away from home for a time.
An inventory can even help you in advance: When creating the inventory, you might stumble on things that you want to specifically call out in your insurance policy!
What should be in a home inventory
I recommend that your inventory include:
- a photograph (or video) of items (the bigger the item, the more youʼll want to capture details by zooming in)
- description
- price paid and where you bought it (and the receipt if you still have it, at least for major items)
- current value (via appraisal) for expensive items
- serial and model numbers
Tools To Use
Use a piece of paper if you have to, but at a minimum I recommend using a spreadsheet.
Keep the file in a directory on your computer that also contains the digital images of items.
There are several free web sites that allow you to have an online home inventory. Just make sure that the online solution offers you the ability to download everything into an easy-to-handle format. Youʼd hate to lose the inventory if the site shuts down!
You can use a database application on your computer or even specialized home inventory software.
If you have a smartphone, there are several apps to make this even easier. Here is a list of some apps to try out.
Insurance companies Allstate, Amica and Farmers Insurance Group even have apps in the Apple AppStore to help you create home inventories. Allstateʼs app is available to anyone, you donʼt even need to have a policy through them to use it.
In closing, we want every consumer to have the best knowledge to be safe, be sure, and be secure! You never know when things can happen and we want to help you find a solution if it does.
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