Guidelines to do an home inventory properly

We know what we're talking about

We've teamed up with european insurances, work with them and constantly talk with the leaders about how we can improve Belongings and make it as insurance compliant as possible.

Each insurance company has its own policies regarding reimbursements. However, if you understand the guidelines exposed here and apply them, you'll certainly be reimbursed by your insurance company the day your house burns down or the day you get burgled.

List everything

The first thing the insurance is going to ask you is a list of everything that was destroyed/stolen. If you can't remember exactly what you have, down to the last sock, you'll inevitably lose money.

You don't need to add every item one by one in your Belongings account, you can create 1 item named "38 pairs of socks", grab a picture of your socks and calculate the price.

Proofs of purchase

The second thing your insurance is likely to ask is proofs of purchase. In some countries they won't care much, while in other countries such as the U.S.A., they won't reimburse you anything that is above $X without a proof of purchase.

You don't necessarily need to add receipts or invoices to your Belongings account, in most case a simple picture of the item is a proof that the item actually exists and was in your house.

For "regular" items, you'll certainly be reimbursed with a simple picture showing the items, e.g. 38 pairs of socks that are worth $2 each.

However, as soon as your items start to have value such as $30 socks, unrecognizable smartphones (iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S ?), luxury items, electronics, etc. basically expensive stuff; it is highly advised to add a picture or a scan of your receipt/invoice.

How to process...

Start by taking the habit of adding new items to your Belongings account. It's incredibly easy, when you walk out of a shop, just grab a picture of the receipt, put the name and the price and you're done, it took you 10 secs and you can throw the receipt away. With a photographed receipt in your Belongings account, you can find the place where you bought it, the date at which you did the purchase, the total value etc. so you don't need to fill the other Belongings fields such as the description, date of purchase etc.

A few weeks later, take an hour or so to add everything you already own (How →).

Warning: under-insurance

Belongings helps you own in a smarter way - we don't help you pay your insurance premium. If your household is worth $100,000 and are not insured for $100,000, you won't be reimbursed anyway.

If you want to raise your insurance premium after using Belongings (let's say you just found out you were under-insured by $50,000), contact us and we will be able to get you some % off.