Relocation & Moving

Damage Protection

Filing Your Claim

If you sustain a loss or damage to your personal property, promptly contact the claims office for assistance. You must allow inspection of the property by both the government and the carrier at either's request. Do not dispose of any damaged items until the damage has been inspected by all authorized parties or you have been instructed to do so by the claims office.

• Packing and preparing your property for shipment.
• Servicing your appliances.
• Using new and clean packing material for linen, clothing, and bedding, and using new or like-new packing material for other items.
• Packing mirrors, pictures, and glass table tops in specially designed cartons.
• Protecting all finished surfaces.
• Properly rolling and protecting rugs.
• Marking each carton to show general contents and preparing an accurate, legible inventory.
• Ensuring that nothing is loaded on the tailgate of the moving van.
• Removing all excess packing material from the residence.

Claims and Coverage

Government Maximum Payment: When moving within the continental United States, a member may request increased valuation or FULL REPLACEMENT coverage. The cost for additional coverage, however, is borne by the member. Members who are prepared to pay for additional coverage should provide the Personal Property Office counselor with sufficient notice, which in most cases is two weeks.

• "Is a gratuitous payment statute enacted by Congress to partially compensate a member for personal property that is lost, damaged, or destroyed incident to service."
• "It does NOT provide insurance coverage, nor was it intended to replace insurance."
• "Congress instead intended to alleviate some of the hardships of military life by providing fair compensation for certain types of property losses."
• "It never intended to restore damaged property to a better condition that it was in prior to a move."

Computation of Award: The Judge Advocate General will periodically publish an Allowance List-Depreciation Guide specifying rates of depreciation and maximum payments applicable to categories of property. The Allowance List-Depreciation Guide will be binding on all Department of the Navy claims personnel. The value of the loss is determined and adjusted to reflect payments, repairs, or replacement by carriers or insurers, or lost potential insurance or carrier recoveries. Depreciation: The Personnel Claims Act is only intended to compensate claimants for fair market value of their loss. Except in unusual cases, a used item that has been lost or destroyed is worth less than a new item of the same type.
Responsibilities of the claimant regarding claims against carriers, contractors and/or insurers: "The claimant is required to take all reasonable action to perfect a timely claim against any responsible carrier, contractor, and/or insurer, or to assist the Navy in the perfection of a timely claim. Failure to take exceptions at the time of delivery of household goods shipments or to make notification of later discovered damage within seventy (70) days is considered sufficient grounds for deducting, from the amount otherwise payable, the amount of any carrier, contractor, or insurance recovery jeopardized by failure of the claimant or his agent to act promptly and reasonably."
Full Replacement Insurance: You may choose to purchase Full Replacement Insurance at the time of your initial Entitlements Counseling session. It is available only for household goods shipments moving within the Continental United States.
Coverage Computation: The amount of coverage is determined by the net weight of your household goods with the minimum weight of 6,000* pounds. The following is the formula for computing the cost for full replacement insurance using 10,000 pounds as an example:

If you have a 5,000 pound shipment and elect full replacement, you will be charged the cost of valuation based on the minimum weight of 6,000 pounds. Although the government has a maximum payment of $40,000 for any loss or damage arising from a single incident, the government payment is subject to depreciation and maximum payables.

The advantage of Full Replacement Insurance is that the carrier will be liable for the repair and/or full replacement value (comparable item) of any item damaged or lost in shipment up to the declared valuation. No depreciation will be applied to a replacement cost.

Upon receipt of your household goods at destination it is important that any visible loss or damage is noted on the DD Form 1840, Joint Statement of Loss and/or Damage at Delivery.

Any additional damages discovered after unpacking your shipment should be listed on the reverse side, DD Form 1840R, Notice of Loss and Damage. The complete form must be submitted to your destination transportation office claim within 70 days. Failure to do so will result in non-payment of your claim. Your claim must be submitted directly to the carrier. If you do not receive a satisfactory settlement or settlement is not made within a reasonable time frame (30 days) you may contact your destination transportation office for assistance.