Legal liability vs. Full Value Protection (FVP)

Moving is stressful. You're uprooting your home to go to a new location, and there are bound to be issues along the way. You might be moving to a smaller-sized home where specific furniture may no longer fit or do the exact opposite and have too much space that you’re not used to. 

Either way, the items will be following you in some capacity towards your new home. There are a few ways to make the move itself. You can choose to handle it yourself, which is rarely recommended, especially when it comes to heavy furniture moving. 

There’s the possibility of bringing in friends and family to help, but that can lead to accidental breakage of more delicate items and no real way to get compensation for those broken items. 

The best way to go forward with moving from one place to another is by hiring professional movers. These are experts that will know how to package everything up and be able to protect your delicate valuables through transportation. 

Through their experience, everything should arrive in the correct number of pieces, but even with the experts, issues can still happen. Then it's up to insurance or valuation to help with everything. 

Do I need to get Valuation? 

That depends entirely on how you value your goods. If your items are old or you're not moving that much, then whatever the basic coverage is from a mover should be enough. 

If you have some form of renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance that has some type of coverage, it's a good idea to get hold of your insurance agent to confirm what that coverage entails. 

Make sure to ask specifically about moving cost coverages, regardless of if you're using a moving company or if you're going to move yourself. This action may become a blessing in disguise with all the various insurance types, as it means you'll be covered for the damage. 

For those that do not have their moving covered by any type of insurance, it's a good idea to obtain additional valuation for moving. Otherwise, damage may occur that's out of your control, and you may end up losing those items completely. 

What are the types of valuations available?

Moving companies technically are not selling insurance but have what is known as movers’ valuation or movers coverage. That coverage can shift the pricing of the overall move but isn't something that has a similar process to other types of insurance. 

There is a set standard of mover's insurance that comes as a bare minimum which is really a legal liability protection, and then a more comprehensive offering that is known as Full Value Protection (FVP). 

Keep in mind with both types of coverage; the items are only covered if the movers packed the objects themselves and also were the sole group doing the moving. Any natural disasters or, shall we say, acts of God that may get in the way of the moving are not covered. Any interim storage solution that ends up causing damage is also outside the scope of liability for these moving companies. 

Legal Liability Protection

This type of coverage is sometimes known as Released Value Protection. This is inclusive of any type of movers that are being used by default, meaning no one really needs to pay a separate charge to these companies when going through a move. 

Yet what this actually includes is sometimes comically, if not really, worth it. The way it works is that it covers a specific amount based on the weight of the item. That's right, so the heavier it is, the higher the compensation in case that breaks during the move. 

This facility is also capped at about $0.60 cents per pound. The coverage doesn't factor in anything related to the item's actual value, so if there was a priceless vase that broke that weighed around five pounds, the total compensation would be $3 for it. 

However, it's nice that there's something that is covered as a default. It's also great that there's something to help keep the costs down with moving and is best for short-distance moves and college students moving from one dorm to another. For a more end-to-end option, there is the Full Value Protection choice.

Full Value Protection

This type of coverage is more in line with what is expected with any kind of insurance or coverage from moving companies. If something ends up breaking during the move and it is a direct cause of the moving company, then the moving company is liable to either repair it or replace it. 

Movers can also offer this in the form of cash for either the estimated repairs or the cost of the item to make it easier. Of course, Full-Value Protection comes at a higher price for the overall move due to the extended coverage that it provides in many cases. 

This comes with some of its own limitations. A mover needs to be able to protect themselves, and there's a category of items that are classified as articles of extreme value. The set standard price for this is $100 per item, and it’s meant to limit the extent of the costs to the moving company in case of damages occurring during the move. 

This is part of the pricing, and there may be different tiers or additional costs by having these high-value items included in the Full Value Protection. Always make sure to get, in writing, what other items are fully covered with any type of move otherwise, there will be a discrepancy in the case of damage occurring. 

Do I need more than Legal Liability or Full Value Protection? 

Movers have a reputation for knowing exactly how to package and move items constantly. Their whole business model is focused on it, so their intention is to maintain their high reputation to ensure that they get future clients. That means it's in their benefit to be able to move your items as successfully as possible. 

With that said, if you do not have any existing insurance via homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, and you have accumulated a lot of valuable items in your existing home, you may want to consider additional third-party insurance. 

This is if the above built-in coverages don’t seem to fit the type of coverage that you are looking for in your move. These third-party insurances are entirely focused on protecting a specific percentage value of the overall cost of goods in the move. 

You can apply different levels based on how valuable the items are versus how much reimbursement is requested. Third-party insurance can be that extra level of protection that can give that peace of mind during a move, which already has its various issues to manage and handle. 

It's important to know what options come built-in when moving and that if they aren't enough, there are always extended insurances out there. Then, when it comes to the moving portion, they can even opt to take standard liability with one mover, Full-Value Protection with another mover, and only insure certain items with a third-party insurer as a way to mitigate costs but also manage moving risks as they come.