Used Furnitures

What do insurance companies do with damaged furniture?

What do insurance companies do if they decide to replace furniture i.e. Persian rugs rather than repair them (or if they deem them irreparable or not worth repairing)? Do they just bin them or do they auction them or give them back to the claimant? ***edit*** Is there a way to contact the companies to see about buying items off them - I work for a Persian rug company and many of the rugs claimed on could be restored to a decent level - seems like an awful waste for them to be just thrown away.

Public Comments

1. They will either scarp them or you can offer to buy them back from the insurer - not many do it now though
2. they will try to make money out of them by selling them to a cloth merchant who might recycle them
3. Most insurers work with a restoration company who will, on the insurance company's order, go in when damage to a home occurs and start the clean up process. This includes attempting to clean any damaged contents. I have taken tours of these companies and they have state of the art set ups to clean and deodorize furniture, clothing, etc. The restoration company will present a list to the insurer of items that could not be saved due to being too far damaged to clean. The insurer will decide whether to send these items to be repaired, however usually they tell the restoration company to dispose of the items. You'd be better off trying to make friends with these restoration companies rather than the insurance companies, however it doesn't hurt to get in contact with the insurers as well.
4. Well, many insurance companies have a policy that they must thro away the rugs, so tey would be happy to give them away. They would love to sell it and make money but their insurance head quaters tell them to throw it away. So I would definitly ask if you could have it. Good Luck!!
5. They have three options. They offer them to the claimant as salvage, and if the claimant wants them, a small deduction is made from the payout to cover the value of the salvage. They auction them off. They sell them on to recyclers. It is worth writing to some insurers to tell them you would be interested in buying them. I work for an insurer and we get lots of letters like that. We do take them on board, as we don't want to be lumbered with lots of damaged property, which would result in storage costs and look for a quick way of disposing of such items.
6. Gambit is correct. I work for an Insurance restoration company, and we have experts that attempt to restore damaged items. Damaged items fall into one of three categories: 1) The item is irreparably damaged and therefore is no use to anyone and will be disposed of. 2) If an item can be only partially restored then the customer has the right to keep the item and accept a loss of appearance allowance from the insurer. This tends to only happen if the item is of sentimental value and therefore irreplaceable to the customer. But the customer can refuse to keep the item and get fully compensated. 3) The item can be restored to it's original condition. So you are really only looking at items that fall into category 2). Most insurers aren't interested in getting damaged items back from their approved repairers, and therefore the repairer often ends up with the damaged item. What you have to remember is that approved repairers are normally specialists in their field and if they can't restore a rug then the chances are that it is irreparably damaged and therefore isn't any use to you. Also, there are legal spects to be considered by an approved repairer when selling on damaged goods. The repairer doesn't automatically have salvage rights to damaged items, and therefore any money made should be paid over to the insurer that has paid out for the item. So it's hardly worth the repairer going to the time and effort of selling the damaged goods as the money they make may not be theirs to keep.