Moving Insurance Tips
These moving insurance tips are designed to help you differentiate between moving insurance and mover's valuation so you can take the appropriate steps to protect yourself from the type of financial loss that could occur during a move.
There are plenty of ways to protect your shipment during a move. Once you know what your options are you can make and informed decision based on your own risk tolerance level and your budget
Most moving companies offer each of these protection options. When you compile your moving estimates, look at the options provided by the movers you're considering carefully. Some of these options are available through, private insurers and your existing Homeowner's or Renter's insurance policy may offer some level of protection for you. Your insurance agent may also be able to provide you with a temporary rider on your policy during your move. Check with your agent to see what's offered and how much it will cost.
The great majority of residential moves are completed without any problems or damage. You can greatly decrease your chance of problems by using one of the pre-screened movers in our free moving estimates system and then doing your homework before you finally select a mover.
When problems related to loss or damage occur during a move, they usually include one or more of the following:
- Breakage or other damage to your personal goods. Such problems may or may not be a result of your mover's negligence. For boxes you pack yourself, you'll generally be on your own unless the entire carton sustains damage. That's why you need to follow our packing tips to prevent this type of damage from occurring.
- Missing items. Usually, the risk that an item will go missing is greater if your possessions end up in temporary storage (or there needs to be a transfer from one moving truck to another at some point during the move) between the time your mover picks them up and when they are finally delivered to your new location. Check your inventory sheets carefully - both at your point of origin to make sure everything has been noted and at your destination to make sure everything has been delivered.
- A casualty event, such as fire or theft, which can also occur whether or not your movers were negligent.
Most homeowners and renters are familiar with casualty losses, which they have insured under either a Homeowner's or Renter's insurance policy. The problems that arise with your personal insurance policies during the move is that homeowner's and renters policies don't cover breakage or "lost" items except for any property specifically insured under a special floater - such as an individually appraised piece of jewelry. Additionally, coverage for personal property is almost always limited to 10 percent of your policy limits if your personal properties is not at your premises. Some better renters' policies include 100% coverage for your personal property no where the loss occurs.
Insurance policies typically carry a deductible and provide coverage either on an all-risk - everything's covered unless excluded - or an a named peril basis - only those causes of loss listed in the policy are covered. The standard homeowner's policy provides for all-risk coverage to your home but only named peril coverage for your personal property. Be sure you understand your coverage so you'll know how much of your property is at risk before accepting or declining any additional protection that may be offered by your moving company.
Moving Valuation and Moving Insurance
When used in the moving industry, mover's valuation is a predetermined amount of responsibility - per pound or per shipment - that a mover has for your property while it's in the moving company's possession. There are different types of mover's valuation:
- Full Value Protection. Many movers now offer this level of protection unless you opt out of it. In such cases, if you opt out, you'll need to sign a waiver indicating you knew about the coverage, it was made available to you, but you chose not to take it. There is a minimum amount of valuation that interstate moving companies must provide as a result of government regulation, but most movers offer valuations that greatly exceed the minimum they're required to offer. For example, the minimum may be $4 per pound or $5,000, whichever is greater. It's important to understand that under Full Value Protection, the amount of valuation per pound is NOT applied to each damaged item. So if a 5-pound item is destroyed, its value is not limited to $20 under the $4 per pound example discussed earlier. Instead, the valuation-per-pound applies to your total shipment. If you're moving 10,000 pounds of household goods, the total amount you could collect in any case would be limited to $40,000 in the $4 per pound example. Movers can limit their payment for any items that are worth more than $100 per pound unless the value of such items is declared specifically in your shipping documents before the move takes place.
- Declared Value Protection allows you to pick a cost per pound based on what you think the total value of your shipment might be. The weight of your shipment is multiplied by this per pound figure to determine the limit of the mover's responsibility. Just like Full Value Protection, this dollar-per-pound figure is not applied per item, but to the total shipment.
- Assessed Value or Lump Sum Protection allows you to specify a dollar figure for the shipment, which in the case of items such as fine arts, may be based on appraised values at the time of shipment. For example, if you select Lump Sum Protection in the amount of $25,000 for your shipment, that's the maximum the mover would be responsible for if you lost everything.
- Released Valuation. Although this is the least amount of valuation that must be provided for your shipment at no cost, most moving companies no longer recommend it because it is the least amount of protection you could have for your move. In this case, the value per pound IS applied to each item. Historically, per-pound limits might be 60 cents per pound, so a 10 pound item would be considered not worth more than $6. Moving companies learned long ago from more than one irate customer that this type of valuation is just not realistic.
When you're narrowing down your choice of movers, be sure to discuss and understand available moving valuation options, what they mean and how much they cost. Find out about deductibles and any special requirements, such as exclusions for expensive items if they're not separately valued on your inventory and so on. Also find out if the option you're interested pays replacement cost - the price to replace an item with a similar new item - or actual cash value - which subtracts depreciation (value loss due to age or use of the item).
Private Moving Insurance
You may be able to find private moving insurance, sometimes referred to as "relocation insurance", but the number of insurers who sell this product is very limited. Check policy restrictions and exclusions to make sure this type of coverage is adequate for your needs. Always investigate any insurance company you've never dealt with before through your state's insurance department or the insurance department of the state where the insurance carrier is headquartered. Records such as complaints and violations of insurance regulations are made available to the public. You can also check out any insurer through the Better Business Bureau to see if it has any record of prior complaints and if those complaints were resolved satisfactorily.
