Homeowners Insurance Coverage for Your Own Work

[Rick Saunders]

I am a long-time hobbyist and over the years have built most of the furniture in our house. Does anyone have any advice on how to establish "replacement value" for items I have built myself for my own use so that they can be adequately covered under my homeowner's insurance? (My nightmare is that my reproduction of a Williamsburg sideboard would be evaluated as a "homemade buffet table" and the replacement cost determined accordingly.) My company (USAA) says I should have the pieces appraised. I could have this done, but wonder about finding an appraiser with experience dealing with custom made furniture. Are there other approaches?

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone might have.

[Mark Bolton]

Have a formal appraisal done by a reputable appraiser. You cant determine your own values.

[Rick Saunders]

Thanks for the quick response.

[Frank Drackman]

I had to go through this with a piece of homemade furniture that was damaged during a move. I put in a claim for what I believed was a fair value. The insurance company pushed back & sent out an appraiser. The appraiser said that I had under valued the worth and the insurance company paid what I requested.

[Bruce King]

Look into insuring them as pieces of art.

[Brian Tymchak]

Interesting question. Have not considered this before. I wonder how an appraiser might assign value for a one-of-a-kind item. I built a timberframe style lumber rack. Materials alone were $1000+ and maybe 400 hrs labor (I worked slow on that one). Probably not a lot of those around, much less being bought/sold to provide comps.

[Bruce King]

https://www.hanover.com/individuals/products/valuable-items

[Mike Wilkins]

Spent 25 years handling property insurance claims and had to deal with this subject often. Insurance companies puts the burden on your shoulders for determining the value of your personal property. I especially heard the claim a lot when it came to old pieces of furniture, which everyone felt was a priceless antique. I had to inform homeowners that unless they had an appraisal of the item in question, they had to use the replacement cost of the item based on local furniture store prices for similar items. And we all know what is sold in furniture stores these days.

[roger wiegand]

An "agreed value" policy with a specialty provider helps with the disputes over value. Basically you and the insurance company set a value at the time of purchase of the policy and if the item is lost they pay that value. Expensive coverage, but solves the problem for unusual items. You generally need to have some kind of appraisal or way of assuring the company that you're not insuring a piece of firewood for a million bucks.