How to do a Home Insurance Inventory using Your Camcorder or Digital Camera

by Ronald R. Reitz, President of Quality Claims Management

If your home and possessions were destroyed by a natural disaster, how easy would it be for you to remember every single item in your house? Would you be able to describe each and every possession your family had accumulated over the years, and then estimate what it would cost to replace each item today?

For most of us it would be an impossible task. However, after suffering a loss following a disaster, that is precisely what an insurance carrier will require you to do if you file a claim for recovery.

Following destruction of your property due to fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm or other disaster you will need to assist your carrier in calculating your loss in order to maximize your insurance claim. The insurance company will request an itemized inventory of all damaged and/or destroyed property. The list will need to include a description of the item, the age of the item, and the cost to replace it today.

You will even be required to separate your damaged property from your undamaged property. Have you ever considered where you could store all of your undamaged property?

After a disaster, you will have more important things to worry about than completing an inventory of lost items. The process of searching through all of your damaged things is not only a tedious one; it can be unpleasant and painful.

Quality Claims recommends an annual family meeting to sit together and compile, or update, an inventory of all of your possessions. For many people, a good time to do this is the beginning of each year, right after the holidays, when you may have lots of shiny new toys, electronics, jewelry and other gifts.

You will need to scan each room, identifying every item. To help with this, you can download free inventory list spreadsheets from the Quality Claims Management web site at www.qualityclaims.com. If you are using a spreadsheet, you can check off the items one by one. It is a great time saver and helps you remember to include all of the little things you own.

A fun way to do accomplish this, and probably the easiest and quickest – is to use a video camera or camcorder to make a video record of your property. As you record the video, describe to the viewer what you are looking at.