Why the list comes before the lift
The list covers what survived as well as what was lost. Insurance Code section 2071 requires the inventory to reach destroyed property, damaged property and undamaged property alike, in detail, with quantities, costs, actual cash value and the amount of loss claimed. An inventory built for a claim therefore counts the shelf that stayed dry, and it is built room by room while the rooms still stand as the loss left them.
Photographs carry the detail a written line cannot. FEMA asks owners to photograph and film personal property inside and outside the building before discarding items, to open closets and cabinets for the camera, to record the serial numbers of large appliances, and to keep material samples of damaged carpeting, wallpaper, furniture upholstery and window treatments. Those samples travel with the file.
What goes next to each item decides how it is paid. The California Department of Insurance tells claimants that making lists of all damaged items is a good place to start, that brand names and model numbers of appliances and electronic equipment belong on the list, and that nothing damaged should be thrown out until the adjuster has said so. On replacement-cost contents its guide adds that the damaged items normally have to be replaced before the replacement cost is paid.
A declared emergency changes what the list has to look like. Where a residential loss relates to a state of emergency, Insurance Code section 2061 bars an insurer from insisting on its own inventory form when the insured's form holds substantially the same information, and requires it to take groupings of categories of personal property, clothing, shoes, books, food items, CDs and DVDs among them.
What contents inventory includes
The rooms to be listed and the order they are worked in are set with the owner and the adjuster, so a camera goes into each one once. Anything already moved before the crew arrived is noted as such in the record.
Each room is photographed and filmed as the loss left it, wide and close, with the insides of closets and cabinets opened to the camera and the position of every damaged piece recorded.
Brand names, model numbers and the serial numbers off large appliances and electronic equipment go on the line for each item, with quantities counted where goods are held in bulk.
Damaged property is separated from undamaged and both are listed, because section 2071 asks for the property in the best possible order before the inventory is furnished.
Pieces of damaged carpeting, wallpaper, upholstery and window treatments are cut and kept, so the material itself can be examined later.
The finished inventory, the photographs and the video go into the claim file with the contractor's reports, scope and invoice, and are shared into your client area.
Nothing is discarded until the adjuster has released it. An item thrown out before it is photographed and listed leaves nothing behind to value, and the claim for it rests on what anyone can remember of it.
Where an inventory matters most
Apartments and HOA buildings
One loss reaches several households, so each name carries its own list and the association keeps the record for the common areas.
Houses and rentals
A tenant's belongings and an owner's furnishings are counted separately in the same rooms, and garages and store rooms are listed with the living space.
Offices and medical suites
Files, desks and equipment are listed before a suite is dried, and paper is recorded first because it changes fastest once it is wet.
Retail suites and strip centers
Stock and fixtures are counted in sections when a shared roof or wall carries water or smoke in from the suite next door.
Hotels and guest rooms
Guest-room furniture, linens and drapes are listed room by room, so the floors still in service are never taken out of use.
Buildings in a declared disaster
Where a loss relates to a declared state of emergency, a residential inventory may be grouped by category of personal property instead of item by item.
Questions about contents inventory
Both are used. The written inventory carries the quantities, costs, actual cash value and amount of loss claimed that section 2071 asks for, while the photographs and video show the condition behind each line. FEMA asks for images of personal property inside and outside a building before anything is discarded.
Yes, and the Department of Insurance says making lists of all damaged items is a good place to start. Record brand names and model numbers for appliances and electronic equipment, photograph rooms before moving anything, and keep damaged items until the adjuster tells you otherwise. The crew's inventory then builds on what you have.
It does. Section 2071 calls for the destroyed, damaged and undamaged property to be separated and listed, put in the best possible order. Listing what survived also shows the adjuster what was in the room, which matters where an item was carried out or cleaned on site.
Section 2071 names accounts, bills, currency, deeds, evidences of debt, money and securities among the property the standard form fire policy does not insure. An inventory records where such items were found, and your own policy wording decides how they are treated.
Not always. Where a furnished primary dwelling is a total loss in a declared state of emergency, section 10103.7 requires an offer of no less than sixty percent of the personal property limit, without an itemized claim.
Contents inventory by city
A contents inventory is requested through the contents pack-out page for your city, which adds the local building stock and the response window.
