Having Photos Helps with Insurance Claims if a Fire Occurs, But….

6/17/2019 (Permalink)

It is important to take the time to document your home and belongings via photo in the unforeseen event that a fire occurs.  This is a definitive way to prove what condition the structure was in prior to the fire.  It also provides proof of all the belongings that you owned as well as their condition.  This can prove extremely valuable when dealing with your insurance company to file a claim for loss and damages. 

The value of this was made more evident by a situation I was told about recently in which a person whose home had caught fire.  Due to a faulty dryer his home was devastated by fire.  He left for just a few minutes and returned to the fire department doing their best to contain the fire.  He had beeen smart in that he had taken pictures of the home and his belongings, but he used his phone.  Which doesn’t seem to be a problem except for the fact that he had left his phone in the home and the pictures were only stored on his device.

This is an unfortunate circumstance that could easily happen to anyone.  We don’t always take our phone with us on a short trip.  Fortunately, there are many ways to store and backup our photos now days with many different cloud based and remote storage options.  Icloud, Google Drive and Dropbox are just a few of the options that are readily available to us.  If you are less tech savvy and still print your photos keeping a copy of them in a fire-proof safe or a safety deposit box are also viable options.  The moral is that while it is important to have pictures of your property and belongings it is equally important to have them stored in a manner that will not be affected in the event of a fire.