Home content insurance and keeping receipts

pault123

Evening,

In the event of a big insurance claim how do you actually prove what needs replacing without receipts for everything?

I'm sure we have many items of value in our homes which we don't hold receipts for.

Do you make a list? What do the insurance companies generally accept?

Debating whether I can destroy some of my 3 year old receipt collection

Paul

pault123

also looking at my home renewal tonight, I have £20k contents cover and £500 building cover. Does the building cover fixtures and fittings such as kitchen units and general house decor or is that to be included in £20 contents?

FlameCloud

With regards to POO, in the event of a claim just be honest. Any half decent loss adjustor will know somethings up as soon as you try and claim. You do need to be aware though that it is ultimatly down to the policy holder to prove they have legal title to the items they are claiming for, so I wouldnt be too rash in destroying them for no reason.

Buildings would cover decorations and kitchen units.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi There

I agree with Flame (again.. seems that I did so just the other day) and you need to rely on the loss adjuster to be reasonable. The misconception is that the adjuster is there to knock down your claim and this is simply not true; he/she is there to make sure you are making a genuine claim and that you are put back into a pre-loss position as quickly as possible.

With regard to receipts, most people who have a computer also have a scanner (let's face it, "all in one" printers are 10 a penny now). Why not scan your receipts for big electrical purchases and any valuations you have for jewellery items? If you want to take it one stage further, save the scanned copies to disc and give the disc to your best friend or your parents; that way, if your house burns down, you can prove ownership of your most valuable items.

Christmas photos are fantastic; people clean their houses for Christmas because they have friends and family around and they bring out the most valuable items (and the hated vase from Grandma). There are also the inevitable photos of the kids opening the PS3 or Wii box, so even if you can't find the receipt, you have the evidence that you owned the item.

To distinguish between Contents and Buildings, think of picking your house up and shaking it. Anything that falls out is Contents. Thereafter, you have to think " could (not would) I take it with me when I moved house?

Carpets and curtains are contents. Wooden floors are Buildings, but laminate flooring is a bit 50/50 and you should speak to your insurer.

Having said that, £20k contents is DANGEROUS!!! Add up the value of the following:

Sofa and chairs
Curtains in the living room and dining room
Cooker
TV
DVD players (ok, so they may be cheap)
PC
Bed
Work clothing (uniforms, suits, etc)
Crockery
Carpets (yes, they are contents too)
Jewellery
Allow at least £2k for clothing for each member of the household
Allow at least £2k for things you do not use or wear.
£500 for any room you do not use
£1k for the loft.

Got to £20k yet?

Unless you are a first time buyer, I do not recommend you insure for less than £35k.

Enjoy!!!

pault123

Thanks flame and oscar. I guess I do need to urgently look at the £20k contents and your right it was from when I originally bought my place 3 years ago :eek:


I'm not familiar with how insurance companies work upon claiming but it sounds like its all about proving ownership.

I'll scan the receipts for my major purchases then if I took pictures of all my other valuables/electricals and saved them to a cd and kept it at my parents that would be sufficient proof of ownership?

FlameCloud

It depends really. If the insurers genuinly think that you are trying to pull something on them, they will want the original.

The only thing the original receipts are really necessery for are items brought abroad, along with the corresponding customs declaration showing that you've paid the duty on the item. Without it insurers are perfectly able to throw the claim out as you have no legal insurable interest in smuggled goods.

dellboy102

I'm in a bit of a dilemma, we've never had contents insurance before and I thought it might be handy however looking at the stuff we've kept, 80% of our belongings we dont have receipts for, I'm just wondering if the worse did happen how I can go about claiming