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You've done
well in life, worked hard, scrimped and saved and now you have a nice
home full of belongings that you have accumulated over many years.
You're proud of your belongings, many of which are very valuable and
quite a few of which, whilst originally costing very little, are of
great sentimental value to you. One day you enjoy a very pleasant
evening out, arriving home tired but happy, only to find that your
worst dream has become a reality, and you've been burgled.
The shock to your emotional system is bad enough, but thank heavens
that you are well insured so there should be no problem in claiming
back the full value of the stolen goods -- or will there?
The first problem you will have will be to remember just which
belongings were in the house at the time of the burglary. You may well
be able to remember the major items, but what about the rest, and how
much were they worth? You now realise that you can only claim for
those items that you can remember!
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Okay, you sit down for a long, long time and try to make a list of all
the items that are missing, secure in the knowledge that if you sit
there until doomsday you will not remember them all! The next question
crops up; have you got receipts for them, and if not, how do you prove
that they have been stolen? Your worst dream has now become a
nightmare.
Of course the conventional wisdom is that you should keep a written
inventory of every item in the house, together with original receipts,
and this inventory should be updated every time you buy any new
contents for your home. This is the real world we live in however and
we are not all dedicated accountants who wish to spend our evenings
making lists so, let's face it, it isn't going to happen. Is there a
better way?
Just about every home in the country contains a digital camera, and
most of these digital cameras will record video clips. What you should
do is take a walk around your house taking lots and lots of
photographs, plus video clips of each room for good measure. It should
not take you more than an hour to go round the average house, plus
perhaps another half-hour to download the films and clips onto your
PC, and then burn them onto a CD. If you subsequently have a fire or
burglary you will have visual reminders of every item in your home,
and you will be able to show the insurance assessor exactly what was
in the house on a particular day before the burglary occurred.
Naturally, you will need to keep the CD somewhere safe, and preferably
off the premises just in case your disaster is caused by a fire rather
than a burglary.
risk reduction
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