Why contents pack-out is needed in Merced
When Bear Creek leaves its banks, the contents of hundreds of Merced buildings are wet at once. In January 2023 the City counted 1,600 residents displaced, 5,000 homes under an evacuation order or warning and 26 businesses affected; where the water topped the bank on W. North Bear Creek Drive it ran down the street, through a trailer park and along Cooper Avenue. Each building's belongings are photographed and listed on their own, because Insurance Code section 2071 asks the insured for a complete inventory in detail of destroyed, damaged and undamaged property.
Most Merced homes are rented and many are old, so a pack-out has two owners to answer to. Renters occupy 58.1 percent of the city's 26,673 occupied homes against 48.4 percent countywide, 12,357 of those homes are more than 40 years old and 1,243 date from 1939 or earlier. The tenant's belongings and the owner's fittings go on separate lists. In a house that age, material disturbed by fire, water or demolition is a reason to empty the rooms before anything is opened up.
In northeast Merced one house can hold several separate tenancies, and each one has its own belongings. The Housing Element reports investors buying newer homes in Districts 4 and 6 and letting each room to UC Merced students, a campus of almost 10,000 with about 4,200 living on it. After a loss the inventory is built room by room, so what belongs to each student, and what belongs to the house, can be told apart when the claim is read. Shared kitchens and halls are listed with the building.
Merced's enclosed centre on Olive Avenue puts many shops under one roof, and stock moves suite by suite. The centre at 851 W. Olive Avenue was built in 1969 and covers about 329,000 square feet on 53 acres, 85,000 of it anchor space. Where water or smoke crosses a shared corridor or ceiling, fixtures, stock and records come out of each affected suite on their own list. IICRC S700 counts fire and smoke damage contents restoration among its parts. No page can say whether a given commercial policy covers stock; the adjuster settles that.
South and south-east Merced hold the city's industrial floors, and there the pack-out is paper and equipment. Industrial zoning sits at the city's edges beside the freeway, the airport and the railroad, grouped since the 1968 plan at Yosemite Park Way and Kibby Road and west of Route 59 from 16th Street to Santa Fe Drive, and a large share of Merced's jobs are there. Office files follow EPA Table 1, which has valuable papers photocopied and the originals frozen or freeze-dried, and FEMA asks for serial numbers on large appliances before anything is discarded.
On 25 March 1998, 3.5 to 5.9 inches of rain in 24 hours flooded more than 65 homes and 19 apartments in Merced, with more than 1,000 people evacuated. A flood on that scale puts many households' belongings into inventories on the same night.
Contents pack-out, as delivered in Merced
Merced is 40 road miles from the Modesto base, the whole way on Highway 99, which has split the city into north and south since the 1960s. One inventory carries the job from the first photograph to the last box returned.
Merced is the longest run in the service area, 40 road miles down Highway 99, which carries 44,000 to 62,000 vehicles a day through the city. The window is 120 to 140 minutes at any hour, and December and January tule fog or harvest trucks put arrival at the upper end.
On the walk-through the adjuster and the owner agree which rooms are emptied, which items are cleaned where they stand and which are held back. Damaged and undamaged personal property are separated at the same time, and no cleaning or remediation agreement is signed before the insurer is consulted.
Each room is filmed and photographed, closets and cabinets opened, brands, models and serial numbers recorded, and samples of damaged carpet, upholstery and window coverings kept.
Boxes carry their room and inventory line out of a Bear Creek Drive ground floor or a student house, into secure storage.
Cleaning follows what caused the loss: S700 after a fire, the S500 contents component after water, S520 contents remediation after mold. Books and papers are photocopied and the originals frozen, drapes cleaned to the manufacturer's instructions, and whatever cannot be restored is held for the adjuster.
Secure storage holds the contents through the Merced repair, and the storage and relocation costs are recorded.
After the rebuild the boxes return and are unpacked against the inventory. The owner signs off, and photos, reports, scope and invoice remain in the client area.
Where contents pack-out is needed in Merced
Merced's areas differ in what a pack-out finds: flooded ground floors, older rental rooms, student lettings, shop stock and office files.
Downtown Merced
Between R and G Streets and 16th to 23rd Streets, where the City places its concentration of substandard housing, many pre-1980 homes rated suitable for rehabilitation. In these rentals each household's property goes on a list of its own.
Applegate Park and the Bear Creek blocks north of downtown
The park follows Bear Creek between M and R Streets, and evacuation orders covering W. 25th to 28th Streets, Canal Street and K Street were lifted on 10 January 2023. Ground-floor rooms here are the first to be emptied.
North and South Bear Creek Drive
The creek came over its banks on W. North Bear Creek Drive and Bear Creek Court in January 2023, and onto the road near E. South Bear Creek and Montana. Whatever the water reached is photographed before it is lifted.
West Merced at Thornton Avenue and Highway 140
Bear Creek overflowed at this south-west corner in 1969, 1997, 1998 and 2006, flooding a residential section in April 2006. In a house flooded before, dated photographs keep this loss's contents separate from the last one's.
North Merced and Black Rascal Creek
Most of the 1970s and 1980s building went here, apartments included, to later curb and gutter standards. A break in Black Rascal Creek flooded homes in April 2006; in a complex, each unit's contents are inventoried on their own.
Olive Avenue and M Street, the Merced Mall
The enclosed centre at 851 W. Olive Avenue, 329,000 square feet on 53 acres since 1969, with denser housing allowed nearby since 1981. Stock and fixtures leave suite by suite so the rest of the centre keeps trading.
Fahrens Creek and Fahrens Park
North-central Merced around the Fahrens Park basin, which the City is working to designate a natural bike trail. Fahrens Creek overtopped slightly in January 2023, and household rooms nearby are listed the same way as any other.
Northeast Merced, the Bellevue Corridor and UC Merced
Newer homes in Districts 4 and 6 let by the room to UC Merced students, beside a Bellevue Corridor plan area of 2.42 square miles. Each tenancy's belongings carry their own sheet, and shared rooms go on the building's.
South Merced
Older neighbourhoods of smaller homes and lots with many apartments, some built before City sidewalk rules and some annexed from county land. These are whole-household jobs, with garages and stored goods listed alongside the rooms.
South and south-east industrial areas and Merced Regional Airport
Industrial zones beside the freeway, the airport and the railroad, grouped at Yosemite Park Way and Kibby Road and west of Route 59. Office furniture, files and equipment are what move out of a plant.
Highway 99 corridor
The freeway that split the city in the 1960s carries 44,000 to 62,000 vehicles a day between G Street and the Route 140 and 59 junction. It is also the road every load takes to and from storage.
16th Street and Route 59 (Martin Luther King Jr. Way)
Route 59 carries 23,000 to 27,500 vehicles a day at 16th and V Street, with the high-speed rail station planned beside SR 99 or on 16th Street downtown. Shop contents along the corridor are listed by tenancy.
Contents pack-out sub-services available in Merced
Questions from Merced property owners and managers
Usually. When the creek topped its bank on W. North Bear Creek Drive in January 2023 the water ran down the street, through a trailer park and along Cooper Avenue, and the City counted 1,600 residents displaced. Belongings standing in that water are photographed where they are and listed before anything moves, so the ground floor can be stripped and dried. Porous items that outside water reached are separated, and the adjuster decides what is held and what is released.
Each tenant's on their own. The Housing Element reports newer homes in Districts 4 and 6 bought by investors and let room by room to UC Merced students, a campus of almost 10,000. The pack-out works room by room: each student's property is photographed where it stands and listed under their name, shared kitchens and halls are listed with the house, and the owner's fittings are kept separate again. Each occupant's own policy is a separate claim.
It is listed and, if the suite has to be cleared, moved. The centre at 851 W. Olive Avenue has covered about 329,000 square feet on 53 acres since 1969, with 85,000 square feet of anchor space, so water or smoke can reach shops that had no incident of their own. Fixtures, stock and records are inventoried suite by suite, packed and held in secure storage until the space is ready.
Insurance Code section 2071 sets it out. The insured protects the property from further damage, forthwith separates the damaged and undamaged personal property and puts it in the best possible order, and furnishes a complete inventory showing quantities, costs, actual cash value and the amount of loss claimed. Proof of loss follows within 60 days unless the insurer extends the time in writing. The pack-out inventory is the record those duties are met with.
They can be, and the policy decides. The Department of Insurance's residential claims guide lists relocation and storage expenses, and furniture rental for a temporary residence, among the additional living expenses that may be covered under the loss-of-use portion of a policy. Insurance Code section 2060 requires the insurer, on such a claim, to hand the insured a list of the items it believes may be covered. Every storage and relocation cost is recorded for the adjuster.
For residential policies, yes. Insurance Code section 2061 then requires the insurer to accept an inventory grouped by categories of personal property, clothing, shoes, books, food items, CDs and DVDs among them, and it may not demand its own form where the insured's carries substantially the same information. On a total loss of a furnished primary dwelling, section 10103.7 requires a contents payment of at least 60 percent of the personal property limit, without an itemized claim. Commercial policies are outside those sections.
Contents pack-out near Merced
