Article

Imagine this scenario for a minute and remember the words, home inventory. 

You’re out of the house that you’ve owned for a good many years, maybe at a friend’s dinner party, you drive back, snug in the warmth of good food and friendship, and come to open your front door. It’s ajar, you are gripped by a sudden sense of panic and as you tentatively push the door open, a scene of utter chaos greets you. Furniture has been smashed, books upturned, possessions thrown around and empty spaces where the TV and computer once sat. 

You tread carefully through the house, finding that the chaos is repeated in every room; items senselessly smashed, valuables missing and graffiti scrawled across the walls.  

It’s a nightmare for everyone who owns, or rents a property.

And when you’ve calmed down, tidied things a little, the police have been and given you a crime number (having a pulled a grim face when you ask what’s the chance of getting your goods back) and you’ve rang your insurance company, the nightmare continues.

A burglary is not something you can forget in a hurry and you won’t be allowed to, well after the event, mainly because filling out the insurance forms is such an arduous task. You begin by trying to remember exactly what was stolen, or damaged; when you bought it; how much you paid for it; and, what the replacement value is. You tend to forget many small items which you took for granted, and now are no longer there, and forget to claim for those, or try to claim, but just can’t really prove their existence in the first place.

This is where a video home inventory comes into play. For only a small outlay, a professional inventory clerk can come around before any crises (burglaries, flooding, etc) and take a written inventory of not only all your belongings (and make notes as to their value and date of purchase, and whether you still have a receipt) and support this with video evidence.

It’s common knowledge that insurance companies, understandably if you think about it, are cautious about some claims, as people are tempted to embellish what they owned and its value; and this then harm’s everyone else’s claims. So if you present your insurance company with a video home inventory, prepared by an independent third party, then your claim will by based on sure facts and not conjecture. You can then expect a speedy and fair response.

So remember, think about a video home inventory. It can save you heartache, as well as money.