Home Insurance – Making An Inventory
We all know how important it is to have home insurance on your property – after all, trying to replace or repair damaged property can be an extremely expensive process. Thankfully, this is no longer such a burden, with home insurance companies taking care of that for you.
However, making sure that you have adequate home insurance is just as important as having the insurance cover itself – if you leave something valuable off, the results can be more than just the cost of replacing the item. Therefore, make sure you make taking an inventory a responsible task, and do it properly.
The Basics
Although you might think that you can probably make a rough guess as to how much the contents of your home are worth, not only would you be surprised at the results, you’d also probably be way off the mark.
Since we constantly add to our property, home insurance needs to reflect this, even if we don’t think that the new bathroom mirror makes all that much difference to the value of our home. So, make sure you set aside a complete day in order to go over your home, and ensure that everything is accounted for, especially the high value items.
Use A Proven Method
Since making an inventory for your home insurance will involve taking stock of all your possessions, it’s no good just going at it willy-nilly and writing stuff down as you go along. Not only is this likely to cause mistakes, it’s not very organised and you’ll soon get disheartened, causing you to finish halfway through.
Instead, choose a method that works best for you, and stick to it. There are many different ways you can make an inventory, but the two most effective ways are:
• Work room to room. This is probably the most effective of the two methods, purely from the standpoint that once you have finished a room, you’ll know that it is completely finished. Regardless of what it is that you’re insuring on your home insurance policy, working room to room ensures that you don’t miss anything out, or worse still, duplicate something.
• Make a list by group. Although just as effective as the room-to-room method, the only drawback here is that you can count incorrectly, and that could make a difference on the cost of your home insurance cover. For example, say you have a large amount of jewellery – by grouping it, you might forget what came from the bedroom, what came from the main room, etc, and count it again before you finish.
Either method is excellent, and will make taking an inventory for your home insurance needs easier. Whatever method you use, make sure you make a comprehensive list, with the value attached, as well as a digital photograph of all your items as well. Then keep the list and the photograph in a safe place, in case you need it – a great idea is at work, or in a safe deposit box.