Valuations for insurance
As part of guarding your jewellery against loss, theft or damage you may want to insure your jewellery items.
To do this you will need a valuation, an appraisal of what your items are worth and what an insurance company should be aiming to pay in the event of a loss, theft or damage related incident.
Our valuation for insurance service consists of a full description of the piece, including style, metals used and hallmarks. The name, shape and amount of any stones used, (approximate grade and weights of stones may be appropriate if we cannot weigh or have the details of the stones) photographs of the items and of course a high street retail value based on market of the day.
We will email the valuation document to you so that you can keep it in a digital file format. However, we can also print a copy for you. Please let us know if you would prefer a printed version.
Your insurance company may request periodic updates. We recommend that you do this every few years or when you change address, as even an address that does not match may void any policy you have. (We do not charge a fee for simply changing the address on your document)
The cost for assessing items of jewellery for a valuation for insurance is £75 per item. You will need to leave the items with us for approximately 7 working days.
The cost to update items already on our database is £40 per item. There is no charge for updating address details. We will need to visually assess the items and any relevant paperwork (certification documents) personally for valuation updates.
Please note; Any relevant paperwork (Diamond/gemstone certificates) must be present when we inspect the items. If they are not present for us to see in person then they cannot be included in the valuation.
'Express' valuations for insurance
If you would prefer not to leave your items of jewellery with us while we asses them, we also provide an express service for customers that would like to have their items assessed during their appointment.
The cost for the express service is £125 per item.
'Verbal only' valuations
We also offer a 'Verbal only' valuation service. This is where we assess the item of jewellery in the same way, but we do not produce a document and just verbally state it's replacement value. This service costs £40 per item.
Please note;
- Valuations can go down as well as up due to current market values and Victoria James Jewellers is not responsible if this occurs.
- You will need to make an appointment for all of the above services. Maximum of 2 people per appointment.
- All services require full payment upfront and are non refundable.
- More complicated pieces of jewellery such as multi stone items may cost more, we will confirm any adjustments to price during the appointment before any work is carried out.
- We are unable to produce valuations for insurance without inspecting the items ourselves (including updates). Therefore, in circumstances where you have lost/stolen/damaged jewellery items that were not included in a valuation document or, an out of date valuation, we cannot provide 'post loss' assessments. We can provide you with a 'quote to replace' letter to supply to an insurance company. This costs £75 and will be deducted off the price of the order, if proceeded, with us. However, we cannot guarantee that an insurance company will accept this as a replacement for a valuation. Any relevant paperwork (Diamond/gemstone certificates) must be present when we inspect the items. If they are not present for us to see in person then they cannot be included in the valuation.
- We do not offer free valuations for insurance on remounts of customers stones or repairs. We only offer free valuations on finished jewellery bought from us on individual items over £1000.
- Independant Gemstone and Diamond verification reports may be needed at an extra cost, this is assessed on a case by case basis. For example; We may need to confirm with a gemologist that, for instance the 'Ruby' is genuine or if it has had treatments, before we can appraise it's value. We will inform you of this if needed, before we carry out any assessment.
- Any relevant paperwork (Diamond/gemstone certificates) must be present when we inspect the items. If they are not present for us to see in person then they cannot be included in the valuation.
- We are not able to value pearl neckets and jewellery.
- All prices quoted include VAT.