We've been burgled - loss assessor comming tomorrow what do we do?

[gruffalomum]

Hi everyone

We were burgled last week, mostly electrical items were taken. We called the police who were great and informed our insurers.

The insurers are sending a loss assessor to meet us tomorrow - we are a bit apprehensive having never done this before - can anyone let me know what to expect?

We have a list of the stolen items, and some instruction manuals etc as proof of purchase in some cases.

Thanks very much

i had one come around after I was burgled, I just answered his questions and talked to him about what had happened, they paid up no problem.

I don't think it's routine though, he said it was because a lot of low value items were taken. I had lots of receipts/packaging/etc which helped though as I am a total hoarder

IME, the loss assessor is there to see if you did actually have the things you're claiming for, and also to check that your details are correct (e.g. if you said you had a working burglar alarm, do you?). We had a lot of jewellery taken so I hunted out photos in which I was wearing the stolen things. So the instruction books are a good idea, and maybe photos showing the items in the house?

He was a very nice man, sympathetic to our position. He also offered us some advice for the future - e.g. we have a great deal of books, and he said we should try and take some photographs of those, as they actually mount up to quite a lot of money. Not that they'd get stolen, you understand, but if there was a fire.....

My BF's DH was a loss assessor, and he says you have a gut feeling from within a few minutes as to whether the people are honest

We also had this happen about 10 years ago now. Think then it was because we lived in an, ahem, slightly dodgy area, but there was no problem. We talked through what was missing, showed what proof we had of missing items - in some cases the gaps on the shelves where videos were missing! They paid up without difficulty. Also it was clear that we weren't taking the piss as we showed that some videos had gone but not all, same with CDs etc. Unless you are making what looks like a really suspicious claim, it should not be an issue - I think you get picked for these things not on a personal basis, as it were, buit because there's some kind of trigger such as the area you live in or the nature of what's been taken. It doesn't mean they have decided you are up to no good!

sorry about that. we got burgled the other week too, luckily not particularly upsetting and nothing precious taken. no insruance comp visit though, all done by phone, post or email.

i had to do a telephone assessment re my not very pricey jewellery, which wasn't much fun and i still haven't heard what they'll offer.

we did have proof of purchase for computers, so they just sent new ones. ins comp contractor has taken our front door away for repairs. we are meant to have a £250 excess, they haven't asked for that but i suppose will tell us what we owe after taking jewellery into account.

Thank you - this is a great help. We have some video clips on a ipod that show some of the items.

We had quite a few low value (some really quite old) items taken so perhaps that is why they are coming.

We are nervous that the insurers may try to not pay the claim as entry was gained through the conservatory (locked) and then into the house through an internal door which was locked when we left but then unlocked when we returned.

We actually don't care so much about the things that were taken its the associated loss, i.e. photos on the computer and not feeling safe anymore that is horrid.

Thanks again

sorry x-posted,

sorry it happened to you all, its so upsetting.

We have proof of purchase for one item,so that should be ok. And the same as eightieschick only some dvds were taken but not all on the shelf so hopefully they will see we are honest.

How does it work with the replacement of items? do they just send you something similar or do you get to choose - I'm thinking of the older items that we had where they won't be able to buy the same thing still.

EightiesChick, that's interesting about a trigger for you to be visited. I hadn't thought about it before, but we had only moved into our house 8 weeks before. The police reckoned that they watched us move in then waited for us to get unpacked before they came in.

Unluckily for them, it was our first house, we were poor and didn't have a great deal of expensive stuff. Unluckily for me, DH had carefully placed my jewellery box on the top of the pile of boxes we hadn't unpacked yet so it wouldn't get damaged so I lost all of it, including my grandmother's wedding ring.

Poledra That's awful about your grandmother's ring. We were also picked on by calculating bastards. We didn't have a lot of good stuff (student/in first job at the time) but it was upsetting to have what was there gone. Worst was that they took the spare car keys, which we didn't notice were missing, and 2 days later came back and nicked the car and wrote it off . We also didn't notice the hoover had been taken till several days later

Gruffalomum - on that note, do just check all your spare keys are still in the house. And I forgot before to say sorry this has happened. I know it is upsetting and you feel bad about being in the house - I did get over this though and we lived there for another 6 years without anything happening again.

Re replacing things, if they can't be easily replaced you will get the cost of the nearest replacement available now. We had some CDs from a boxed set taken, and specifically reported which ones had gone, but it was easier to just pay us the rough cost of the whole boxed set than to work out what the eqivalent CD would be bought on their own, so they did that. So you will almost certainly get to choose and will get cash to buy your own replacement for the older items that aren't now available. Our video machine got taken and we chose to use the money for that on a DVD player so we felt like we'd got something better out of the whole experience.

Thanks all for your replies, advice and support.

I am so sorry about your jewellery Poledra that is just awful.

EightiesChick we hadn't even thought to check the keys...thank you will do so as soon as I get back today. We are desperate to sell but perhaps that is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction and we should give it more time.

Thanks all once again and sorry for all your experiences.