How can I find the dolllar amount of appliances I bought years ago?

Question

We had water damage to our kitchen and I need to find the cost I originally paid. We have replacement cost and my adjuster is not a lot of help.

Answer 1

I'm an insurance adjuster and I'm not sure why your adjuster needs to know what you paid for something years ago.

Are you looking at a column on a form they gave to you or did the TELL you that you needed that figure. If they didn't actually tell you that you needed to put that figure on the form I would skip that column. Or you might want to call the adjuster just to confirm that the original purchase price is needed.  

Here is how replacement cost (RC) coverage normally works.

You need to determine the cost to replace the items at todays cost. This is the replacement cost. (RC)

For example if you had a microwave that you paid $150 for 4 years ago, the $150 figure shouldn't even come into play.

What you need to do is find a "comparable" microwave and see what it would cost to buy it today. Don't be surprised if a comparable one is cheaper today than it was 4 years ago. This is very common for appliances and electronics.

Anyway, let's say that a "comparable" microwave is now $100. That is the figure that matters. It is also the figure that the homeowner normally reports to the insurance adjuster on the contents list.

The adjuster then will figure out a depreciation figure for that microwave based on the expected life span of the microwave. We'll use 10 years as the expected life span for our example.

So the Microwave is 4 yrs old and has used 40% ( 4 yrs divided by 10 yrs) of its expected life span.

The RC value of $100.00 is reduced by the 40% depreciation figure to determine the INITIAL payout. 40% of $100 = $40 .

Here is where policyholders normally get surprised or angry. The small print of your policy normally states the company will pay you the depreciated amount up front. So the RC of $100 - $40 depreciation = $60. This means that you will receive $60 up front for the microwave.

HOWEVER, you will be paid the $40 depreciation amount AFTER you provide receipts showing that you have actually replaced the amount. You actually have to replace the item in order to be able to collect the full $100 RC in this example.  

You will have a limited time to present your receipts to the adjuster in order to get the secondary payment. Check with the adjuster to see what the time frame is. Normally, it is 90 to 180 days.

I hope this makes some sense to you and I hope my explanation is not too confusing. If you can't get any help from your adjuster ask to speak to a claims manager.

FYI depending on the size of the claim some companies will pay you the entire amount up front regardless of whether you replace the item or not.        

Good Luck

Answer 2

Without receipts, you can't.

Answer 3

Look through your receipts?  Credit card bills?  Cancelled checks?