After a Flood … What Happens to All of My Personal Belongings?

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Hangout with Jason Knox
– is all of my furniture destroyed?
– who handles the packing and moving of my contents?
– what if I want to get at some of my things during the project?
– are these costs covered by insurance?
– I have a tenant – are their contents covered by insurance?

Mark: Hi, Mark Bossert, Top Local Lead Generation. Were here with Jason Knox from BC Preferred Restoration and we’re going to be talking about “After a Flood … What Happens to all of my Personal Belongings?” How are you doing today Jason?
Jason: I’m doing pretty good thanks, Mark, how about you?
Mark: Good, good. So, I guess if there’s a flood in my basement and it gets up a bit high, is all my furniture destroyed?
Jason: Well, no, not necessarily. But a good portion of it that is sitting on the ground is going to have to be assessed and then dealt with properly. A lot of the furniture will probably have been damaged and made non restorable at that point. But we will assess each piece individually and some of the furniture if it’s – are plastic or metal, even some finished woods, depending on how it’s finished would be able to be saved through cleaning and drying, so yeah, it’s not necessarily a complete write off and you know, we’ll take every measure we can to ensure that we restore what we can, for sure. Those items that we can’t save, we call them non restorable contents, those items basically the insurance company will give you a replacement value for, so we will handle those contents, we will make a list of those items, we will document them with pictures, highlight the damages to these items because of the flood, and like I say the insurance company will then give you a replacement value for those items.
Mark: So, who handles the packing and moving of those items but also anything else I might have had that were in the flood zone?
Jason: Well, on most jobs, your average job or smaller size jobs, BC Preferred Restoration will handle all of your contents, including all the packing, safely packing them, securing them, moving them and storing them while the work’s going on. On larger losses, like if you are talking of an entire house of contents we may enlist the services of a moving company who will come in and help with the pack out and moving of all the contents. Everything, all contents moving charges and handling charges and storage charges when working with us will be covered by the insurance company regardless of who does the actual handling of the contents.
Mark: So, I guess that brings up the next kind of obvious question. What if I want to get at some of my personal stuff while you’re still restoring the basement?
Jason: Yes, it’s a good question, it comes up quite often. You never plan for these things and in the heat of the moment you might pack something away that, you know, a couple days later you need. So, we have a couple different options. We can either pack up your stuff and have it removed to a storage facility where you will have access during business hours, and you can always get your stuff during business hours or another option is to have a safe, a secure, water tight storage container put on your property, or in front of your property, maybe on the street where we can load your things into. Give you a key to it, make sure like I say, it’s locked up, it’s safe, it’s secure and at that point you can get at your stuff any time you need to.
Mark: So, I guess the other big question is, are all these costs covered by insurance?
Jason: Yeah, again if you’re working with BC Preferred Restoration and we’re handling the contents, everything that we do will be covered by your insurance company if this is an insurance claim, like I say if we have to enlist the services of subcontractor, a moving company to do this work, same, their costs go through us and to the insurance company. So yes, short answer is yes, it is covered.
Mark: So if I have a tenant, I have a legal suite in the basement or maybe even not a legal suite, is the tenants contents covered by insurance?
Jason: Yes, it’s a great question and the answer is no. No the tenants contents are not covered by the homeowner’s policy so, this could be in a rental suite or a basement suite within your house or it could be a rental property that you have an apartment or a rental house, their contents are not covered and that pertains to anything to do with their contents including manipulation, storage, replacement of damaged items so the best measure to protect your tenants is to encourage them to purchase their own policy, their renters insurance and this will cover all of their belongings while they’re living in your house.
Mark: Awesome. Short and sweet this week but we’re down to the good stuff, I think. Thanks a lot Jason.
Jason: Thank you Mark.
Mark: Right, so we’ve been talking with Jason Knox at BC Preferred Restoration. You can reach them at 604-295-8646. Take care.