StowcaseDescription
Brand, model, and enough of the object to re-buy it. A television is not a line item; a 65-inch LG OLED C3 is.
Home inventory for insurance
The insurance version of a home inventory has a specific job: to be the document that decides what a claim pays. Here is what goes in it, how each line gets a defensible number, and what to check before you need any of it.
The premise
Coverage is a limit. A claim is a list.
A contents policy says the insurer will pay up to some number for your personal property. It does not say the insurer will pay that number. What gets paid is what you list, describe, and substantiate, and the gap between the limit and the list is entirely yours to close.
No insurer publishes a standard format for this, which is why the advice is usually vague. In practice an adjuster wants the same eight things about every item, and once you know what they are, an inventory stops being an open-ended chore and becomes a form with a known number of fields.
Per item
The eight fields an adjuster reads.
Room
Where in the house it was. A schedule is read room by room, and a room with nothing in it is the first thing an adjuster asks about.
Quantity
Six dining chairs is one line with a quantity, not six lines. The total is what matters.
Serial number
For anything that carries one. This is the field that separates a claim from an assertion, and it is also what a police report needs.
Purchase date and price
When you got it and what you paid. Not the payout figure on a replacement-cost policy, but it establishes ownership and age.
Replacement cost
What the item costs to buy today, new. This is the number a replacement-cost policy pays against.
Condition
Relevant on an actual-cash-value policy, where depreciation is applied, and on anything antique or collectible.
Proof
Receipt, appraisal, warranty, or a photo of the serial plate. One disputed line with a receipt attached stops being disputed.
Valuation
Four numbers, in order of authority.
Stowcase values each line on the best figure it has, most authoritative first, and prints which one it used beside the number. Nobody should read a market estimate as an appraisal, so the report never lets them.
- 01
Replacement cost
What it costs to buy the same thing new today. The answer to the question an insurer actually asks, so Stowcase uses it wherever you have recorded one.
- 02
Appraised value
A dated professional opinion. The right number for jewelry, art, and instruments, and the one that gets a category scheduled.
- 03
Market estimate
What the thing currently sells for. Not replacement cost, but for a collectible it is frequently the more honest number, and it beats nothing.
- 04
Purchase price
What you paid. Last resort, because it is the only one of the four guaranteed to be wrong: it is a number from the past.
Sub-limits
The categories worth adding up separately.
Policies commonly cap what they pay for certain categories, well below the overall contents limit. Stowcase totals these separately in the insurance report so you can compare each one against your own policy:
- Jewelry
- Watches
- Art
- Musical instruments
- Coins
- Stamps
- Trading cards
- Memorabilia
This is a prompt to check a policy, never a statement about one. Sub-limits vary by insurer, state, and endorsement, and Stowcase does not know the terms of your policy. If a category exceeds its cap, ask your agent whether those items should be scheduled on a rider. Have that conversation before a loss.
How to do it in Stowcase
From an empty account to a schedule you can send.
Inventory the house first
You cannot schedule what is not listed. Work room by room until every room has been done once. The photograph-and-save loop is built for exactly this pass.
Fill in replacement costs, not just purchase prices
Stowcase proposes a replacement cost when it identifies an item from a photo, and you can overwrite it. Anything left with only a purchase price is valued on that, and flagged as such in the report so nobody misreads it.
Attach the proof that exists
Receipts for the recent and expensive, appraisals for the capped categories, a photo of the serial plate for anything with one. Perfect coverage is not the goal; coverage of the arguable lines is.
Read the unvalued count
The report tells you how many items carry no value at all. That number is the size of the gap between your inventory and your claim, and it is the fastest thing to fix.
Check the capped categories against your policy
The report totals the categories that commonly carry a sub-limit. Take those totals to your policy or your agent. If jewelry totals more than the cap, that is a rider conversation, and it has to happen before a loss, not after.
Export it and send it somewhere off-site
Email the PDF to yourself and to your agent. An inventory that only exists in the house it documents is not an inventory.
What comes out
Three artifacts from one gathering pass.
PDF schedule
The document that gets emailed. Room by room, each item described, valued, and marked with where that value came from, with a total at the end. This is what goes to an agent, an adjuster, or your own records.
CSV
The same schedule as columns, for anyone who wants to sort it, filter it, or hand it to someone who works in a spreadsheet. Includes the appraisal fields, the value basis, and the document count per line.
Full bundle
A ZIP of the PDF, the CSV, and every receipt, appraisal, warranty, and serial photo you have attached. The bundle is the one that settles a disputed line, because the proof travels with the claim instead of sitting in an app.
Already have access? The report lives at Insurance report in the app. It opens with the total, the unvalued count, and the capped-category tallies so you can review the important numbers before downloading anything.
Keep reading
The rest of the home inventory guides
Home inventory: what, why, and how
The whole idea in one page: what belongs in a home inventory, why an undocumented claim gets paid at the adjuster’s number instead of yours, and the room-by-room method that gets it finished.
Moving inventory list
Number the boxes, record what went in each one, and arrive with a list that settles a damage claim against a mover instead of an argument.
Estate inventory
List and value household contents for probate, an executor, or a family division while keeping one clear record.
Home inventory checklist
Room by room, the things people forget: the garage, the attic, what is inside closed drawers, and every serial number worth photographing.
Home inventory template
A spreadsheet template with the exact column names Stowcase reads, so a list you already keep imports in bulk instead of being retyped.
Start your inventory