A big concern to everyone when hiring a moving company is “What happens if the movers break something or lose it all together?” and the answer is that it depends. It depends on what state you’re in or if it’s an interstate move and whether you decide to pay for extra insurance or not. This may seem complicated but it is actually fairly straightforward.
For all interstate moves the movers are required to provide you with what is called “Released Value Protection” at no extra cost to you. This is very minimal coverage and the moving company is only liable for $.60 per pound for every item. So for example if they break a 25 pound TV they pay you $15. Not very reassuring but it’s free and it’s better than nothing, but just barely.
For intrastate moves it varies state to state with many states also offering some sort of minimal protection similar to the $.60 per pound coverage offered for interstate moves. If the moving company has not said anything about this coverage you should definitely inquire about it and review the contract closely. It should mention this minimal coverage somewhere in the contract. Again, not that this coverage offers a tremendous amount of protection but gives the movers some incentive not to thrash your stuff.
In many cases the moving company will offer you additional insurance for additional cost. They usually want to offer this because they can make a little extra money on it even though the insurance may be provided by a third party insurance company. The amount you’ll pay for this will depend on a deductible amount (typically either $0, $250 or $500) and the total value assigned to your belongings. It can cost a few hundred extra bucks for this coverage but does provide you with some assurance. With this insurance coverage the mover must either: repair the item; replace with a similar item or make a cash settlement for the cost of the repair or the current market replacement value of the item.
One more thing to consider is that if you pack your own boxes, it may be more difficult to make a claim against the moving company for any breakage that occurs in those boxes, regardless of how well you feel you packed them. In fact many movers will flat out say, we will not cover any boxes you packed. Some, however, will say if the outside of the box is damaged they’ll cover it, if the box is still in tact, they won’t.
Even though you’d like to think that your belongings are safe, accidents do happen and it’s good to know what happens when they do. This is just one more reason to pick a moving company with a big name, they have more incentive to be careful with your belongings because they want to keep their name clean. If you picked your moving company blindly and because they were the cheapest they just might not care as much.
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Written by the One Simple Move Team
