How to Document Your Belongings Before You Need to Claim

Nobody enjoys spending an afternoon photographing their possessions. But the people who have done it and then had to claim describe it as the best-value hour they ever spent, and the people who have not describe trying to remember, from memory, in a hotel room, what was in their kitchen cupboards.

Insurance claims are settled on evidence. Here is how to have some.

Why the burden lands on you

A contents claim asks you to establish that you owned an item, what it was, and roughly what it was worth. Your insurer was not there. In the absence of evidence, the settlement drifts toward the insurer's estimate, which is usually lower than yours and not unreasonably so — they have nothing else to go on.

This gets sharper after a total loss. A house fire destroys the possessions and the receipts, warranty cards and the box the television came in. That is precisely why documentation needs to live somewhere other than the house.

The afternoon version

The most effective thing you can do takes about an hour and needs only a phone.

Walk every room on video, narrating. Open cupboards, drawers and wardrobes as you go. Say what things are and, where you remember, roughly when you bought them and what you paid. Speech is far faster than typing, and a continuous video establishes context and condition in a way a list cannot.

Then go back and take still photographs of the things that matter: anything worth more than a couple of hundred dollars, and anything with a serial number. Photograph the serial plate on televisions, computers, appliances, tools and bicycles. Serial numbers are what convert "a laptop" into "that laptop", both for the claim and for any chance of recovery after a theft.

Do not forget the places people skip: the garage, the loft, the shed, the contents of the freezer, and whatever is in the boot of the car. Also photograph what is on the walls and floors — rugs, art, curtains and light fittings are commonly forgotten and commonly expensive.

Storage: not in the house

An inventory stored only on the phone in your pocket or the laptop in the living room is an inventory that burns with the house. Put it in cloud storage, and ideally give a copy to someone outside the property.

Keep receipts for significant purchases in the same place. A photograph of a receipt is fine. Emailed order confirmations are already off-site, which is a quiet advantage of buying online — searching your email for "order confirmation" is a surprisingly effective way to reconstruct several years of purchases.

Whatever you build, put a reminder in the calendar to revisit it annually, and after any significant purchase or renovation.

The sub-limits that catch people out

Here is the part that surprises most claimants. Even a generous contents limit contains small internal caps on specific categories. These vary by policy but commonly include jewellery and watches, silverware, firearms, cash, collectibles, and business equipment kept at home. Jewellery theft in particular is often capped at a low figure — sometimes a couple of thousand dollars for everything you own, regardless of your overall contents limit.

If you own an engagement ring, a camera kit, instruments, a bicycle or a collection worth more than the cap, the fix is to schedule those items individually. Scheduled items are typically insured for an agreed value, often with no deductible, and against a broader set of causes including simple loss — which standard contents cover generally excludes. You will usually need a valuation or receipt, which is another reason to keep them.

Read your policy's declarations page and find these caps before you need them. It is a ten-minute job that periodically saves people five figures.

Replacement cost versus actual cash value

This single setting has more effect on your settlement than almost anything else.

Replacement cost pays what it costs to buy an equivalent new item today. Actual cash value pays that minus depreciation. On a ten-year-old sofa or a fifteen-year-old roof, depreciation can reduce the payout to a small fraction of what replacement actually costs.

Confirm three things separately, because they are set separately: that the dwelling is written at replacement cost, that personal property is too, and whether your roof sits on an actual-cash-value schedule based on its age. Roof settlement schedules have become common in hail-prone regions and materially change what arrives.

Also ask about extended replacement cost, which pays a percentage above your dwelling limit if construction costs spike after a widespread disaster, and ordinance or law coverage, which funds bringing an older home up to current building code during repairs. Without the latter, the insurer may pay only to restore what was there and leave the code upgrades to you.

If you do have to claim

A few things make the process go better.

• Document the damage before touching anything, beyond what is necessary to prevent further loss. Photograph and video widely.
• Mitigate, and keep the receipts. Policies require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage — tarping a roof, extracting water — and those costs are usually reimbursable.
• Keep a log. Every call, the date, who you spoke to, what was agreed. Claims can run for months and staff change.
• Keep damaged items until the adjuster has seen them or explicitly released them.
• Track living expenses if you have been displaced. Loss-of-use coverage reimburses hotel, meals and additional costs above your normal spending, but it needs receipts.

One thing worth thinking about before filing

Prior claims are recorded in a shared loss-history database that insurers check when quoting, and in some cases even enquiries are noted. A small claim close to your deductible can raise your premium at renewal by more than the settlement was worth, and repeated small claims can affect renewability.

None of that is a reason to avoid claiming for a genuine, significant loss — that is the entire purpose of the policy. But for damage only slightly above your deductible, it is worth doing the arithmetic before filing, and worth asking your insurer whether a general enquiry will be logged as a claim.

If you are reviewing your cover, our ranked comparison of home insurance providers sets out how the major insurers differ on replacement cost, endorsements and claims handling, scored against the criteria in our rating methodology.

This is general information, not insurance advice. Policy forms, sub-limits, endorsements and settlement rules vary substantially by state, insurer and property. Read your own declarations page and policy wording, and confirm current terms with your insurer.