No Receipts What Do I Do

[marc stew]

My home was broken into the other day and I am filing a claim. The burglar (s) stole some jewelry, money, collectible coins, guitars, and some other personal items. When I spoke to my agent he told me that I need to gather receipts and proof of purchase. Well, I am sorry, I am 62 years old and have been collecting coins since I was a child and never "purchased" any coins per se. Then he tells me today my policy only covers up to $500 for stolen money. Need less to say I have ONE penny worth $900 so the rest of my collection is gone

The question I have is I have 7 guitars and all except one was purchased back in the 70's and late 80's. I paid $350 for one of my guitars and I just looked up replacement cost on it and it is worth between $18,000 and $30,000. I had no idea it was worth so much. I do not collect guitars, I play them. I do not have a receipt on any of my guitars, I have some serial numbers and have pictures of me playing most of them. I have replacement coverage. Will the insurance company try to pull a quick one on me like the money and say we only cover "x" for instruments?

Thanks
Marc

 

[jhuang]

Submit what you can, then if they don't budge, have the carrier prepare a statement under oath. If they refuse to do that, contact the DOI in your state.

However, limitations on a policy is worded specifically. Check the policy and make sure....your agent should help you with this.

 

[marc stew]

Why would I have the carrier prepare a statement under oath? I do not understand. I am sorry for asking a question that may have a simple answer.

 

[russelltw]

Marc,
I hate be the be bearer of bad news, but your home owners policy generally has limits for such things as cash, musical instruments, etc. An inland marine policy would have been necessary to cover such items. Either way, unless it was appraised, i don't think they would offer any more than what it was worth (no sentimental value, only value to replace it).

With that said, start calling all of your local pawn shops with 1 hr from where you live and tell them to be on the look out for these stolen items. A old client of mine had found some stolen items that way (client could have cared less about getting a replacement, but wanted a violin her father gave her when she was little). Turn in all the info you can and talk with your agent to see what would be acceptable for proof of ownership.

Anyone else have any advice, I'm not a P/C agent in texas, so things may be different there.

good luck and so sorry about the break in.

 

[briko3]

I'm not a P&C guy, but if they don't want to cut a check, ask them if they will find a replacement for you. If they can get it cheaper, more power to 'em.

 

[robb01]

Russell pretty much nailed it. I'll also add to browse craigslist in your area and see if your items are listed for sale on there. eBay also lets you search by zip code, so check there too.

 

[Josh]

I'm not a P&C guy, but if they don't want to cut a check, ask them if they will find a replacement for you. If they can get it cheaper, more power to 'em.

That's not how P&C is going to work in this situation because of the policy limits, i.e., if the policy will only cover up to $1,500 for instruments, they'll only cover up to $1,500.

@Marc Stew: You needed to have scheduled items, i.e., if you had a guitar worth $8k, you needed to add that specifically to the policy if you wanted it covered under the homeowners policy. Did you ever tell your agent about your valuables? If so, it might have been negligent on the insurance agents part and this may be grounds to go after the agents liability insurance and/or give you more ammunition with the carrier. If you didn't tell him about it, then unfortunately it looks like you're simply uninsured for this except for the policy limits.

As to the title of the thread, the receipts aren't necessary, but they are helpful. You're going to want proof that you had what you had and proof that it was valued at what you believe it was valued at. If the coin was valued at $900, how was that value determined? Did you have an appraisal of your collection? Do you have any documentation that you in fact even had the coin(s)? Even pictures of your collection in your home would be helpful, but again, you probably have internal policy limits that you'll be maxing out.

 

[djs]

I'll second Josh's statement.

I'm sorry about your loss. Even if everything is recovered, its an ugly thing to have someone break into your house and steal your stuff.

Now, some extra info just to help process this.

- Make sure you have filed a police report. Nothing will happen without that.
- Insurance companies work on retail value of an item, unless it has been appraised and added to the home policy specifically. What I mean by this, in general, a penny is worth a penny, unless you've listed a coin collection on the policy. For guitars, it will basically be covered as what you can go buy a similar style, quality, make, model for today. They usually won't pay 'extra' because its an older guitar, but should pay replacement value based on your local guitar shop.
- Find pictures of whatever was taken, if you can. Don't sweat it to much, but the more you can show the better it is. In general, an insurance company isn't going to question the fact you had a couch, tv, pots and pans, etc. But on the other hand, if you are a plumber and say you had six armani suits stolen, they may ask for more proof, since it doesn't fit the norm.

- Most insurance companies will work with you on fair value of the items. They will not usually work with you on collectors value unless you have appraisals (or receipts) to back up this value. For some items, you can submit some proof of replacement costs which will help the adjuster determine the value.

- Expect a 2 part settlement. This trips a lot of people up, but it may happen in this case. Replacement coverage policies (as you mentioned you have) will usually pay upfront for the actual cash value of an item (depreciated cost) and then, once replaced, will pay the difference. Your agent can explain to you if this will apply and why this happens (helps prevent a LOT of fraud).

In the future, anytime you have something different than the average person on your block, you need to talk to your agent about this to make sure its covered. Many items on a home policy have sublimits, such as the money limit you mentioned. These are there to help prevent a lot of fraud on claims and can easily be adjusted if requested based on items you have. Problem is, the agent needs to know to do it and have a conversation about the cost of the additional coverage and the proper way to provide it.

Dan

 

[marc stew]

I may not have receipts but I sure do have a lot of pictures of me playing my guitars as proof. I never knew my guitar would value that much, I never thought about it. As far as coin collection, I do have pictures of that as well. I actually went around with a vidro camera and shot a viv of all my items including the video camera in a mirror.

I think they should pay out what the guitar is worth because a new one may be worth $1600 and not play as well or be make in china which would suck as well but I guess once I file the claim we will see what they come up with. I am sure they will want to cover their own butt. I have had home owners ins with them for 20 years, never filed a claim and paid $200 a month so that should be worth something coming my way. Either way, I will learn a lesson

 

[Josh]

You've been paying $200/month for your homeowners insurance? My guess is you have your auto and homeowners with the same carrier and you're including both, right?

If you haven't filed the claim yet, you really should do that ASAP.

If you have pictures of everything like you say you did, that's great. If you're guitar was an XYZ guitar, they would base their replacement cost off of actually replacing XYZ guitar, not something different.