How to Make an Itemized Contents List for Your Hurricane Ida Insurance Claim

One of the more time-consuming issues you will face in proving your hurricane damage claim will be remembering and claiming all of your contents.

You are focused on cleaning and repairing your property, not writing everything you lost down to use in your insurance claim.

Unfortunately, I know both as someone who has lost nearly everything in Ida and as a Louisiana hurricane claim lawyer, a written list of all the personal property you lost is important when you file a claim.

Lindy has been going room by room working on documenting our home items, while I’m documenting the items from the office.

How do I list the contents of an insurance claim?

Each item that you lost, regardless of its size or ultimate value, should be claimed. You should include the Manufacturer or Brand Name, Model or Description, Serial Number (if applicable), and Year Purchased. You should also provide the current cost of replacing the item along with a link where it can be purchased when possible.

Helpful tip: You can go through your purchase history online to get quick access to links for past purchases.  In addition, places like Target, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and many others will also show you in-store purchases in your account history if you made a purchase with a credit card that’s linked to your account.

You should also take a picture of the item prior to throwing it away. If you list “40 shirts,” you should have a picture or pictures of 40 shirts. You should also list details such as brand names to avoid being paid the bare minimum for the items.

If you take a picture, it is important to document what the picture is depicting.

I have been involved in enough hurricane damage lawsuits to know that you are likely to forget what each picture you take is of a few months from now.

I thought it would be helpful to share a template of the itemized list worksheet that we’re using to document our damaged home contents for the insurance company.

The sheet even gives you space to write down the picture id of the item or you can link to the picture on Dropbox or Google Drive.

I trust that you will find this useful in documenting your hurricane damages.

If you have any questions about your content insurance claim, give us a call at 985-240-9773.

We’re in this together!