Insurance documentation pics

GotWood

GotWood

Sayer of Fact
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Location
Maiden, NC
Have any of you ever paid to have a company inventory your insurable items like tv's, guns, jewelry, tools, etc??
 
No but I've heard the BEST thing you can do is to go around your house and snap 59744093869083792895000237458295732704 pictures of all your stuff, including serial #s. Then burn said photos to a disk and put them in the bottom of your freezer.

The disc can survive the cold temps with no problem and the freezer can survive a house fire.

That way you have photo proof of your possessions and their condition.
 
LR Max said:
No but I've heard the BEST thing you can do is to go around your house and snap 59744093869083792895000237458295732704 pictures of all your stuff, including serial #s. Then burn said photos to a disk and put them in the bottom of your freezer.
The disc can survive the cold temps with no problem and the freezer can survive a house fire.
That way you have photo proof of your possessions and their condition.
Click to expand...
That seems like a good idea.
 
Yea, my wife is looking into starting a service w/the company she works with now. Seems like a great idea to me to have a bonded company come in and take pics and document all of the valued possesions then store the media off site like in a bank safe deposit or something like that.
 
GotWood said:
Yea, my wife is looking into starting a service w/the company she works with now. Seems like a great idea to me to have a bonded company come in and take pics and document all of the valued possesions then store the media off site like in a bank safe deposit or something like that.
Click to expand...

interesting idea.
However I wonder about the liability the company may be taking on there.
You would have to have documentation attesting that the homowner reviewed EVERY picture, and agreed that it included everything.

Otherwsie, what happens when homeowner comes back later, after fire, and says "Hey I also had a diamond ring here. Really, I promise - but there's no picture of it." If the insurance company balked, and refused to covert he alleged item, they could sue the documenting company for failing to document it and thus losing the value.

We already keep all of our photos on various "internet" storage sites anyway, so by default everything is backed up. Every picture my wife's camera takes goes straight to a photo sharing site.
I don't mean to be a dick, but the pricing for such a service would have to be low enough for people to not just do that themselves. Just food for thought.

You know, I also wonder if people would be nervous about having some stranger come to their house and document everything they have, especialy since it's for expensive items, and the pics would presumably be where the items were IN the house. Seems like if I were a theif, I'd love to get my hands on that database - or better yet, just run such a company as a front. just thinking out loud here, some people are really paranoid.
 
Iron Mtn handles that type of thing.

they handle all kinds of off site management services. A customer of mine stores their presidents signature chip (for installing into check printers so the checks already have a signature on them). their chip in the printer went south and Iron Mtn dispatched a courier immediatly with their back up chip. they were back to printing checks the same day.
 
those are all questions that have been/are being addressed. Her company has been in business for several years and has a good reputation. EPSI (Emergency Personell Services Inc) deals with the fire/rescue depts in NC so the reputation is not too much of an issue. As far as the cost, the LKN area is full of high priced lake homes and the such. No different than letting a contractor into your home while you are at work really. But they are discussing the fact of having the homeowners home for that exact reason.
 
GotWood said:
No different than letting a contractor into your home while you are at work really. But they are discussing the fact of having the homeowners home for that exact reason.
Click to expand...

Well, except that you don't specifically show a contractor every one of your valuables and where they are located.

i'm just sayin, some people may be leary of that aspect, I'm not sure how you get around it.
my biggest worry would be the liability and potential for dealing w/ people trying to commit fraud. But I guess that's what business liability insurance is for, too.
 
Yea, very true dave. I know someone out there does it, so I guess the bottom line is why can't someone else too.

If you felt everything was on the up and up, would you be willing to have this service done? What if your insurance agent suggested a particular company?
 
GotWood said:
Yea, very true dave. I know someone out there does it, so I guess the bottom line is why can't someone else too.

If you felt everything was on the up and up, would you be willing to have this service done? What if your insurance agent suggested a particular company?
Click to expand...

For me, i'm cheap ;-) and like I said, I already know how to get all of my photos backed up, so I'd be more likely to just do it myself.
That aside, if the service were fairly affordable, then yes - I guess the key (sales pitch) being to stress not just that the docs are "secure" but that the agent has a very well accepted (by insurance agencies) and clear documentation scheme, so that the records are very clear and easier to go through later.

E.g. any guy can walk around the house w/ a camera and take pictures - but actually cataloguing everything with pertinent details, in such a way that the value of said items can be easily and painlessly reconstructed later - that is another ballgame altogether. That takes somebody w/ a lot more patience and anal retentiveness than I have.

I can imagine that after, say, a fire or flood, trying to go back through a bunch of your home-made photos and using those to ID everything would be a real pain, during a time that is already very, very stressful. And, who knows if the ins. co. adjuster will even agree as to the state/condition/value of things based on your snapshot.
However if there is very particulary documentation of everything (not just photos), in a nice organized format that adjusters have already pre-agreed upon, I could see that greatly easing the situation. Maybe what you are "selling" is a sort of peace of mind in the event of disaster?
 
Back
Top