[Wayner]

Yes, the home insurance bill came in the other day. A nice 25% increase is what it looked like to me. Well, to bring it back down to real numbers, I had to raise the deductable. Not happy about that, but it was the only answer for my household.

While talking to my insurance agent, she really recommended that I take pictures of everything in the house. I asked "everything"? She said "everything".

My interpetation of that was that if a poor guy ever needed his insurance company to cough up in time of need (fire, storm, theft), these guys are going to really make you prove that you actually owned it. I think they are looking for any excuse not to pay.

What does that mean for me? I'm in the process of photographing my 2,000+ LPs, 850 CD,s and movies. I'm also taking pictures of all of my home furnishings including equipment and recording serial numbers and junk like that. What a job.

I will put everything onto a CD-ROM and put it into the safety deposit box. I guess you guys can do what you want but I think this is a good idea.

Wayner

[Charles Calkins]

Wayner:

 Time for you to shop around for a new insurance carrier.
 Unless you've had a big casualty claim recently I see no reason for a 25% increase.
 It's your hard earned money and you can spend it anywhere you like.

                                               Cheers
                                               Charlie

[launche]

Where do you live Wayner?

[TomW16]

What might be easier than photographing everything in your house, you can take a hand-held recorder and video tape each room of the house, opening drawers, closets, etc.  Don't forget the garage! 

In the event of a disaster, the video tape can provide the documentation to prove that you owned the item.  As mentioend, the video tape should be stored outside of the home so that it is not also destroyed.

Cheers,
Tom

[turkey]

What might be easier than photographing everything in your house, you can take a hand-held recorder and video tape each room of the house, opening drawers, closets, etc.  Don't forget the garage! 

In the event of a disaster, the video tape can provide the documentation to prove that you owned the item.  As mentioend, the video tape should be stored outside of the home so that it is not also destroyed.

Cheers,
Tom

I was going to suggest the same thing. Do a complete walk-through on video, and also try to make relevant comments on things as you go.

[BobM]

Yeah, the video walk-through was what we were told to do when we first purchased the house. Of course there wasn't much in it, even after we moved in (was was poor kids on a tight budget). I've updated it every couple of years, and especially after a major change to a room. You need to pull out every drawer and every closet and be as thorough as you can be.

Even if it's not 100% completely up to date, looking at it will remind you of noe/other things in the room, should you ever need to refer to it. Of course there would be no proof of that for the insurance company.

It lives in the safe deposit box.

Bob

[DustyC]

It took some work , but I logged all my Cd's and Lap's into a database with the album/CD serial numbers, titles, etc. plus descriptions, serials, and pics of all the hardware in the house. Agent advised that with that sent to the carrier with an AGREED upon value from both parties, should prevent surprises.

A 25% increase seems a little high to me unless there has been a marked increase in burglaries in your neighborhood. Our policy dropped a few years ago after we started a block watch.

[Wayner]

I was told the Minnesota is the land of extremes, which I agree with. They said there were an extrodinary amount of claims in the this area because of wind, storm, hail damage not to mention the occasional 5 inch downpours and tornados, and all insurance providers have hicked 'er up. One reason they gave me was that many people had a real low deductable, like $500 and were making claims like a bastard. I will check around, but I still have a good deal, I have some features in this policey that have been grandfathered in that I could not get anywhere else.

Wayner

[gjs_cds]

There is actually a program that lets you take a pic of bar codes, and it keeps your stuff inventoried for you.  I can't recall the name of the program off the top of my head, but I can figure it out if you'd like...

[jermmd]

I have a beach house on Long Island and my Homeowners insurance doubled over the last three years because of recent hurricanes and future hurricane predictions. I can sympathize with you Wayner. I'm paying almost the same insurance on the house in Long Island as my primary home in CT. And the Long Island house has no land and is about the same square footage as my CT house's basement.

[TheChairGuy]

Insurance of ALL kinds (homeowners, health, medical, life, commercial, etc) are going up, up, up.

Your insurers are earning less, or indeed have lost quite a bit already, of the 'float' (that is, collective premiums invested so that they are there when you need it ).

With higher returns on their 'float' the past several years now dashed by the recession.....you pay in to raise the value of the float again.

As well, claims and annuities are likely to have lowered payouts, too.

Welcome to the unseen facets of steep recessions

John