What Exclusively Contents Inc. Professionals do with “Total Loss” Rooms
So what does an Exclusively contents manager do when faced with a room so badly damaged by the fire that there is nothing left but ash?
She (he) takes pictures of the ash and all the walls and corners of the room – just as if it had items still intact.
Then, at that point, they make the images of the total loss available to the adjuster. And move on to other parts of the house where the Exclusively contents pros can do some good.
But that leaves the homeowner trying to create an inventory for a room with no items. He (she) has to try to remember what all was there before the fire. The adjuster cannot close the case, the Exclusively contents team cannot be paid until the job is complete.
So we performed an informal survey of our sister Exclusively contents valets to discover whether something could be done to move things past such an impasse. And as it turns out they had been pondering the same conundrum.
Several of them recommended that the Exclusively contents managers go online and type the phrase. “Home inventory checklist,” into a search engine We did and discovered that there dozens of lists of common items. Found in rooms within an average home that might help to jog an insured’s thoughts.
And most had that the owners go back through pictures of holiday gatherings, birthdays, etc. (items in the background are often just what need).
And still, another suggested that we sketch out a large “blueprint” of the house on butcher paper or large construction paper. To let the owner mentally go room by room remembering items that were intrinsic to specific areas.
These ideas may not be perfect, but sometimes they are enough to break a mental “log jam”. Produced by stress and the stark reality of the remarkable damage that has occurred.