Moving insurance

Sixty cents per pound per article, and the arithmetic is the point. A 50-inch television weighing 40 pounds pays 24 dollars. A laptop weighing four pounds pays two dollars and forty cents. A sofa weighing 200 pounds pays 120 dollars. Released value is free because it is close to nothing, and it applies automatically unless you choose otherwise in writing.

Under full value protection the mover is liable for the item rather than for its weight, and must repair it, replace it with a like item, or pay its value. It costs extra, the amount depends on the declared value of the shipment, and the mover may set a deductible. Read what the declared value is set at, because a shipment declared below its real value is underinsured by exactly that gap.

Sometimes, partly, and rarely in the way people assume. Some policies cover belongings in transit and many do not, and those that do often exclude damage by a hired mover on the grounds that the mover carries its own liability. Ask your insurer the specific question rather than the general one: are my belongings covered while being transported by a moving company, and to what limit.

A document from the moving company's insurer confirming that the company carries cover, usually naming a third party as additional insured. Most apartment buildings require one before a move may take place, and it is the commonest reason a move is turned away at the door. The company issues it, not you, and it can take several days. The apartment moving checklist covers what a building asks for.

Anything valuable, anything already damaged, and the serial numbers of electronics. A claim is decided on what can be evidenced, and photographs with a date are the evidence. Do it before the crew arrives, not while they work, and keep the inventory the mover produces, because that document is what the claim is measured against. The moving inventory page explains that document.