New York Says Inventory, Review For Winter

Review That Policy! The New York Department of Insurance said in a recent press release that the approaching winter storm season should serve as a reminder to us to review our homeowners policies and more importantly (at least from my perspective) to get those home inventories completed.

Develop a home inventory with such information as receipts and photo/video records showing your real estate and personal property. Make sure you have two copies one at home and another in a safe but accessible location away from your home.

Trust me, you don't want to make the state of New York angry. You better get to work! Give us a call.

Farley Home Services meets your home inventory needs. Please visit EverySingleItem.com for more details. Thanks for reading!

Titanic Treasures At Stake

What's This Got To Do With Anything? I found an interesting article on the remnants of the Titanic, and who owns its rights. Admittedly, this has nothing to do with home inventory, insurance, or any of the other things we normally discuss here. I just find it interesting to imagine treasures resting on the ocean floor, and the history of this particular vessel.

The company RMS Titanic (RMST) has emerged as the owner of the salvage rights. RMST is considering a seventh dive next year, its first since 2004 although other dives, including one financed by "Titanic" director James Cameron, have taken place. RMST has already recovered 5,900 artifacts from the ship during the first six dives. Legally the company does not own the ship nor the recovered items and it has gone to court in pursuit of limited ownership as a way to make up for the huge salvage costs.

The proceeds from the artifacts of this ship could amount to $100 million, so this is no idle dispute. Here is some of the footage from the 2004 dive:

Farley Home Services provides home inventory documentation for all of your treasures. Please visit EverySingleItem.com for details.

What's In The Vaults?

Art Bought By Banks, and Bailouts: A recent New York Times business article described the vast amount of art owned by banks around the world, and how that art ownership has been affected by the recent global financial crisis (perhaps you may have read about it).

Some do make an effort to share their artistic wealth. Monte dei Paschi di Siena of Italy invites the public to see some of its impressive collection, which stretches back to the Renaissance. The Swiss bank UBS lets the Tate Museum of Britain select from its collection. But these efforts don’t often come to much. The Tate currently has only three of UBS’s pieces on display.

Critics claim that banks don't display the works they hold, hoarding them in unseen vaults, unaware of both their monetary and intrinsic values. Sadly, mosts banks that own vast collections are not in a position in the current economic climate to pay an adequate curator to let them know what they have. Works sit in storage, unappreciated on every possible level.

Contact Farley Home Services (EverySingleItem.com) for help with your home inventory needs.

How Insurance Companies Feel About Mold

Let's Just Get This Out On The Table: Fire insurance business is typically easy for agents to write. The premiums are good, and the policies don't require very much in the way of service other than the occasional mortgagee clause change when a client refinances. So agents like to write homeowners insurance policies, umbrella policies, and business insurance coverages because they tend to be easy money. If there's one thing that drives P & C insurance agents crazy, it's homeowners policies that get sideways.

Mold is, plain and simple, a maintenance (rather than insurance) issue in the eyes of the insurance industry. If you have a water damage loss that requires mold remediation, you've done something wrong. Insurance is intended to be for things that occur suddenly and accidentally. All insurance policies require you to prevent further damage from occurring once you discover a claim situation. Mold grows over time, so a loss that has mold means that you have neglected a leak or you haven't been paying attention to some other situation in your home.

Mold claims get denied. The insurance industry doesn't want to pay for the maintenance of your home.

Please visit the Farley Home Services site at EverySingleItem.com for your home inventory needs.

California Shakeout

Earthquake Preparedness In The News: California recently held a statewide earthquake drill called the Great California Shakeout to get people thinking about disaster preparedness. Sadly, the event has already taken place and I missed it, but you can still read about how to get yourself and your family ready to face an emergency like this on the state's website.

Farley Home Services provides home inventory documentation. Please visit EverySingleItem.com for more information. Thanks!

Last Minute Heroics

A Great Night for America: I don't normally devote an entire blog entry to soccer, but it's warranted today because of the wonderful turn of events that took place last night in our nation's capital. Our national team, depleted from the outset by the loss of our speedy young striker Charlie Davies (more on that later), and down to 10 men at games' end due to a significant injury to our stalwart defender Oguchi Onyewu, (more on that later) came back from a 2-0 deficit despite shameless time-wasting efforts by our opponent Costa Rica (more on that later) to secure a 2-2 draw, and with it the top spot in the CONCACAF region heading into next year's World Cup.

The USA was reduced to 10 men for the last seven minutes of the game, plus five minutes of stoppage time, after defender Oguchi Onyewu went down in the Costa Rican penalty box with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee, suffered while he was backpedaling after a corner kick. He had to be stretchered off and, as the USA already had used all three of its allowed substitutes, the Americans played a man down the rest of the way.

Charlie Davies was significantly injured in a fatal, single car crash early Tuesday morning. The SUV in which he and the young woman who died were passengers was torn in half, and Davies had crushed bones in his legs, facial injuries, and a torn bladder requiring hours of surgery later that day. Questions have arisen as to whether Davies will ever play the game again, but of course those pale in comparison to the loss of a loved one suffered by the family of Ashley Roberta.

Onyewu, who plays his club soccer with AC Milan of Serie A was stalwart all night until his injury. He has a remarkable ability to be in the right spot to head away any ball directed toward his goal in the air. At the time of his injury, the USA was trailing 2-1 and had already used our allotment of three subs for the match, so our boys finished the game short-handed.

The Costa Rican coach, Brazillian Rene Simoes ("The Professor") argued with the fourth official on the sideline about the timing of a substitution late in the game, and the exchange became so heated that the game was disrupted and Simoes was ejected. One by one, other Costa Rican coaches were ejected in an effort to disrupt the game and kill off the clock while nursing a one goal lead. The head official was wisely having none of this, and ensured that the USA received a generous portion of stoppage time added to the end of the game, which proved to be crucial. The image of the Costa Rican bench, depleted and in despair after the tying goal, will be one US fans will treasure for a long time.

The dramatic extra-time header that tied the match was nodded home by defender Jonathan Bornstein through the smallest of spaces between a Costa Rican defender and the goal upright. How it went in is still a mystery to me. All in all, a very satisfying night. And we finished ahead of Mexico in the final standings, which is always a plus!

Please visit Farley Home Services at EverySingleItem.com for all of your inventory needs.

Art Theft That Grows More Odd By The Minute

I'm Sorry, Can You Explain That Again? The Boston Globe has the story of a strange theft which is shaking (or amusing) the art world. Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, a former Harvard University Medical School instructor, and Angelo Benjamin Amadio, a law school student, claim that much of their art collection, which includes works by Rembrandt and Van Gogh among others, has been stolen. The problem? They don't cooperate with police, they seem to relish giving press conferences, and they had very few of the works insured. Things just aren't adding up.

Investigators, who previously identified the alleged victims, Dr. Ralph Kennaugh and Angelo Benjamin Amadio, as suspects in the theft are considering the possibility the doctor was a victim of Amadio, a spokesman for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday. “That is one scenario we’re looking at,’’ said Commander Mike Richards. “There have been untruthful and inconsistent statements presented to us by Mr. Amadio.’’ In a telephone interview from California last night, Kennaugh, 62, who worked as a radiation oncologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester until March and was an instructor at Harvard Medical School, called the allegation “ridiculous.’’

I first became of aware of this story through this blog posting on Appraiser Workshops, and the details have become decidedly less clear over the last week.

Now, Something Completely Different: The US Men's National Soccer Team won an amazing game on Saturday night in Honduras that clinched their 2010 World Cup spot, marking the sixth consecutive time that they have qualified. The victory, a 3-2 spellbinder, came after Honduras' leading goal scorer missed an 87th minute penalty kick that would have tied the game and delayed our qualification. The often maligned Connor Casey scored a brace (two goals in one game), and captain Landon Donovan drove home the game winner off a free kick from distance about midway through the second half. It was the ugliest, most beautiful game I've seen in a long time, made all the more exciting by the grainy, bootleg internet feed I was forced to watch it on. On to South Africa! Our national team really deserves your attention.

A. J. Farley enjoys a good art theft tale as much as the next man. He also runs Farley Home Services, your home inventory professionals. Please visit EverySingleItem.com.