Help with damage and insurance

[Nannuu]

We had a house fire this week. The fire never got near the statues but it either destroyed the boxes entirely or just the shipper or the shipper and the artbox and styrofoam in the art box. The statues have varying degrees of damage as the firefighters tried to save them by tossing them in an untouched room. Now I have chips, broken pieces and missing pieces (one completely shattered).
When the insurance adjustment company comes to evaluate, what kind of price knockdown can I expect? I'd like full replacement reimbursement for the truly damaged statues (I hope) but for an undamaged statue but missing or damaged box I don't know what to ask for. Hopefully they understand my resale value is now less and I can get a payment to make up the loss of value?
Any experience with this would be awesome.

 

[Bezzerkerr]

Sorry to hear about the fire.

Do you have a homeowners/renters insurance policy or a specialty insurance Collector’s Insurance policy?

I don’t have good news for you. Sorry in advance. Most homeowners/renters insurance policies give VERY minimal coverage to statues, figures and collectibles. They fall in the same category with coins, stamps, sports cards, dolls and other collectibles. I believe they are insured to $1500 or $2500 on most policies regardless what your personal property coverage amount is on your policy. Even if you have $100,000 or $400,000 personal property coverage on your policy this means if anything happens to your statues, they will be covered nowhere near your personal property coverage listed on your policy. Collectibles are specialty items similar to fine arts, cameras, musical instruments abd firearms. There is limited coverage for specialty items if not scheduled separately (line item schedule) on a policy if not having a separate collectors insurance policy.

long story short, I’m sorry but I wouldn’t expect a BIG check for your damages statues or boxes. A collectors insurance policy would fully cover your losses but a $50,000 policy covering miscellaneous statues & figures runs about $250-$300 a year.... roughly.

sorry, I hope this helps. My advice is to to call your insurance company and see what’s covered.

 

[Turtle882]

I hate to hear you went through this! I had major storm damage a few years back, and had to go through it. We had pretty good coverage, and insurance ended up covering a lot of stuff, and replacing completely even where the damage was minor. I will say that although we were eventually put back in place, it was a fight at times, so expect push back. Also at the time I didn't have any high end collectibles. As Bezzerkerr said, I would have hit the policy cap if my current collection were around then. I should probably get a policy now.

Again, I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. I hope the whole process is easy and that your claims adjuster is a decent person.

 

[medicomsucks]

while i had to go through hoops with my insurance company for about 6 months, I finally hired a public adjustor, who took a big percentage of what I got, but I still got double what my insurance was originally was going to pay. After this ordeal my insurance company dropped me so I had to find a different company but that wasnt a huge deal.

Luckily they let me itemize the figures, and show ended ebay auctions to show their estimated value. 90% of my stuff wasnt damaged at all (basement fire) so after about a year or so I felt pretty whole.

 

[Nannuu]

Thank you for the help. Just hoping for the best then!