Burgled and left terrifed

Aretnap

Mike_Shaw wrote: »

What is worrying is if they turn around and say we won't give you a penny. I have read stories online where people are under insured and they get nothing. It may be better to tell the insurance company that we found items just so we get something. This is my family and we can't afford to start from nothing over a technicality.

Where did you read those stories? Have a read about wha the Financial Ombudsman has to say about underinsurance here

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/under-insurance-household.html#

You might find that the payout is reduced somewhat, but unless the insurer can show that you deliberately and dishonestly understated the value of your contents to get a cheaper premium (very unlikely unless there's something big that you're not telling us) you're not going to be left with no payout at all.

aeb_2

As has been said you need to write down the total value of everything. When my husband died I began selling his collections and household items on ebay. My mum lives 200 miles away and came to help me sort out. I sold about £14,000 of stuff, about 650 items. Mum came again nearly a year later and said she honestly couldn't see any difference, she couldn't see any space let alone a £14,000 sized space. What's more I found it difficult to remember what I had sold other than the big things. It really made me realise how easy it is to be under insured and how difficult it would be to itemise everything in the case of a fire.

OP, I hope it gets sorted soon and I hope they catch the scum-bags

diesel100

last I was thinking, how does one keep all receipts for items accumulated over lifetime? obviously keep receipts for TVs etc when under warranty...but receipts for everything else???
what do others do?

Quentin

Most items are covered on a new for old basis.

So the receipts are irrelevant. You need to work out your cover based on buying your items at today's prices.

If you have valuable items that you would need to prove ownership of and have no purchase proofs then photograph them so you can show ownership

comeandgo

After having to deal with a claim and having to try and get evidence I now keep receipts.

tyllwyd

I'm still trying to understand how they could have taken £16K's worth of stuff without you waking up? OK, they took the tv and laptops, and 3K's worth of jewellery (does your wife leave all her jewellery downstairs?) but how can they have also stolen an additional £8K's worth of stuff without moving larger items and waking you up? Did they take furniture? And if your wife has that much jewellery, it makes me think that she probably has expensive clothes, shoes etc - if you had £16K's worth of movable stuff downstairs, it would make me think that you have much more than even £30K's worth in the entire house. Maybe it's just me, because I'm a light sleeper and we don't own many individual high price items as a family, but it seems like quite an unusual situation.

Buzby

diesel100 wrote: »

last I was thinking, how does one keep all receipts for items accumulated over lifetime? obviously keep receipts for TVs etc when under warranty...but receipts for everything else???
what do others do?

I scan them into One Note, by year and month. Everything. It takes about 10 mins every month but it's all there, stored in the cloud. Have been doing this for the last 8 years and cannot recommend it highly enough. Used for insurance claims, warranty returns, teaching doen when I bought something and many too numerous to mention. It even OCRs the receipt so a search for TV pills up everything!

rs65

diesel100 wrote: »

last I was thinking, how does one keep all receipts for items accumulated over lifetime? obviously keep receipts for TVs etc when under warranty...but receipts for everything else???
what do others do?

I've started a spreadsheet of all contents which I email to my gmail address periodically. I keep a note of room, item description, serial number, purchase price, purchase date, retailer, replacement price. I scan receipts to an external hard drive and keep a safe copy elsewhere.

I also keep detailed photos of valuable items and general room photos. A view of a room would give insurers a general idea of what you had. A photo of an open wardrobe gives a rough idea of quantity of clothes - ie 1 suit or 10 suits. etc etc

Its a pain to do but once completed will be easy to keep up to date. Proves invaluable to set a sum insured (removes any guess work) and could be invaluable if a serious claim ever occurred.

hugoshavez

diesel100 wrote: »

last I was thinking, how does one keep all receipts for items accumulated over lifetime? obviously keep receipts for TVs etc when under warranty...but receipts for everything else???
what do others do?

Nobody will expect you to have receipts for everything OP (unless it's happened to you before, or you're in the claims business like some of those above), but they may push you for other ways to evidence big purchases like photographs of jewellery, or credit card statements.

Don't worry too much about the underinsurance right now, but you should have heard back from the insurers a few days after emailing them. With a claim of this size you can probably expect a loss adjuster to come see you. They'll run through the different aspects. Loads of people here to help with questions too.

A_Couple_In_Love

Hi Mike,

I think the most important question here, is to prevent it happening again, for both reasons, to help you sleep, and to prevent further loss.

Have you got yourself a pick-proof lock? Are you also aware you can snap locks? This is also very common so try and get a lock that covers both of them.