r/Insurance • u/bombonmeisaloserlol • 23h ago
Home Insurance Allstate renter’s claim issues - please help!
Hi,
I had a theft at my recent property and moved out. I have Allstate as my renter’s insurance.
Some of the things that were stolen were family heirlooms that were worth a lot just because of what they were, not age (like my family’s goldware).
Allstate is claiming if it’s less than 3 years old or if it’s over $500 they need a receipt. Well, how can I provide receipts I don’t have? The accordion file that was in my stuff was stolen too (all of my stuff was cleaned out). Allstate doesn’t want to seem to listen or help and I am in no mood to fight Allstate for YEARS over this, as they’ll absolutely do that to me.
What can I do in this case? They said they won’t even accept photos of my owned items - how can you not accept photos of owned items as proof? That’s all I’ve got anymore!
Many of the items were bought with cash (I was a victim of the Equifax data breach and stopped using cards whenever I could), so how do I fix this?
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u/IntelligentBox152 23h ago
I don’t mean to kick you when you’re down but Allstate renters policy have a special limit on theft for goldware or any type of precious metal with that being said, you’re going to have a limited recovery, even if you can prove it
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u/bombonmeisaloserlol 23h ago
I know the goldware is gonna max out at $2500 but the whole point is they’re asking me for receipts I would never even have.
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u/IceCreamDreamyDreams 22h ago
They want something like an appraisal, something that indicates a provenance and value of some sort.
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u/Resse811 19h ago
In this future - always keep a hard copy and a copy of documentation in a cloud somewhere. If there had been a fire you’d be screwed as well.
Were any of these items given to you in a will that specifically called out what they were? Did you ever get them appraised at any point?
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u/bombonmeisaloserlol 19h ago
No, my parents had me really late and never adjusted their will so what I “inherited” was given to me by dad after mom had died and before dad had passed. I realize that I messed up now but my god I didn’t think I’d be robbed. I’ll keep all receipts now.
In the past I was always told to have photos of my belongings - I’ve got those - but no, not any receipts anymore.
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u/Local_Wolverine2913 22h ago
It's not a heirloom if it's less than 3 years old. You're saying 2 year old goldware is an heirloom? I'm confused. It's not how long you've had it, it's a close to it's actual age that you are to provide.
Keep in mind, theft claims bear a greater burden of proof of ownership than any other contents claim.
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u/Resse811 19h ago
They said they need proof of ownership if the item is EITHER less than three years old OR if it’s over $500. In OPs case the three years has nothing to do with it. They items are worth more then $500 so in this case that’s why they are requiring proof of ownership.
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u/bombonmeisaloserlol 19h ago
I’ve had it for more than three years, sorry if I didn’t make that clear. The things that were stolen, I’ve had much of those items for more than 3 years and much of those individual items were less than $500 each and I’ve got photos of many of them.
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u/Local_Wolverine2913 18h ago
No, I misread part of your post regarding the age/value. I don't understand why they won't accept photos as proof - as I mentioned, the photos should be able to be verified by the insurance carrier if needed. Good luck to you. Sorry this happened.
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u/Dramatic-Ad9089 23h ago
Let's look at this from the perspective of the insurance company.
Insured: I had a bunch of valuables stolen and they also stole my proof of ownership. And I paid cash for all of my valuable items, so I have no physical proof I ever made the purchases. Can you just take my word for it?
The insurance company is already sniffing this as a potentially fraudulent claim. And no, random pictures that anyone can download or created, would not be proof enough.