What Is a Statement of Value for a Home Insurance Claim?
It's a document listing what your property is worth, used to support how much your claim should pay.
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A statement of value usually comes up when the insurer's offer seems low and you need to show what your home or belongings were actually worth before the loss. It lists items or structures with their values, sometimes backed by receipts, appraisals, photos, or a contractor's estimate for rebuilding. Your adjuster may ask for one, or you can put one together yourself to push back on a number that doesn't match reality. Without documentation, the adjuster's estimate tends to stand, so this is one of the few ways you can directly challenge it.
A low offer isn't the final word
If your policy's payout depends on numbers you can document better than the adjuster did, a stronger statement of value matters more than switching insurers. Still, it's worth checking what another policy would pay for the same loss.
How do you put one together
Start with whatever already exists on paper. Closing documents from when you bought the house, a prior appraisal, contractor invoices for renovations, photos from before the loss, receipts for furniture or electronics. Insurers weigh documentation they can verify over a number you assert on your own, so the goal is to attach a source to every figure you list.
For the structure itself, a rebuilding estimate from a local contractor carries more weight than what the house would sell for on the market. Those are different numbers. A real estate agent's valuation reflects land, location, and demand. A contractor's estimate reflects labor and materials to rebuild the square footage you had, which is what your dwelling coverage is meant to pay for. If you don't have one, get one before you finalize your statement of value. It's the figure most adjusters respect.
For belongings, go room by room if you can. List the item, when you bought it, what it cost, and what it would cost to replace today if you know that figure. Photos help, especially ones taken before the loss that show the item existed and its condition. If you're missing receipts, bank or credit card statements showing the purchase can support the number you're claiming. A similar listing from a retailer today can work too.
Once it's assembled, send it to your adjuster in writing and ask that it be added to your claim file. If the new offer still doesn't reflect what you've documented, your policy likely has an appraisal clause. That's a formal process where each side picks an appraiser and a third umpire settles any disagreement. That process exists for exactly this kind of standoff. A well-built statement of value is what makes your case to the appraiser you choose.
What if you don't have receipts or records for everything
Most homeowners can't produce a receipt for every item they own, and insurers know that going in. A missing receipt doesn't erase an item from the claim, but it shifts the burden to other kinds of evidence. Photos, even casual ones taken for unrelated reasons, often show furniture, electronics, or appliances in the background. A birthday photo from three years ago that happens to show the couch in your living room is worth something. Social media posts with timestamps can serve the same purpose.
For big-ticket items without paper trails, comparable listings help. If you can't prove what you paid for a five-year-old refrigerator, find what the same or a similar model costs now, or what it would have cost used around the time you bought it. Retailers and resale sites both work for this. The idea is to give the adjuster a number with some backing rather than an unsupported figure, since the first is far more likely to hold up.
Affidavits carry less weight than documentation but aren't worthless. A written, signed statement describing an item, when you got it, and roughly what it was worth can support a claim when nothing else exists, especially for smaller items where the cost of proving value exceeds the value itself. Some adjusters push back harder on affidavits than on photos or statements, so use them to fill gaps rather than as the whole case.
If the gap is in the structure itself rather than belongings, like proving a renovation happened before a fire, permits filed with the local building department often outlast your own paper records. A permit for a kitchen remodel or an added bathroom is public record and timestamped, which makes it harder for an adjuster to dispute than a contractor's invoice that's easy to lose track of. Checking with the municipality is worth doing before assuming a past upgrade can't be proven at all.
Before you send anything else
Pull your declarations page and check what your dwelling coverage limit actually is, then compare it to a contractor's rebuild estimate. If the two don't match, that gap is the first thing worth documenting.
