Vanessa lived in a large house in an upscale neighborhood. Fromthe outside her home looked like the rest of the neighbors', butthe inside was a different story. The windows were covered andinside, papers, boxes, trash, knick-knacks, old mail and a thousandother items were piled floor to ceiling in every room. They coveredevery counter in the kitchen, overflowed into the sink and thestove. The bathtub in the main bathroom was stacked full ofmagazines. Her son and daughter had finally moved out of the house,unable to live in the dirt and stench. Her husband still lived inthe house, cooking their frozen TV dinners in a tiny microwavebecause the oven had been filled with scraps of paper and otheritems years earlier.

Vanessa hadn't showered in months because the bathtub wasn'tuseable. Instead she took a sponge bath in the sink. At holidays,instead of hosting family dinners, her brother and his family wouldjust leave their holiday gifts on the side porch. Vanessa wasn'talways a hoarder, but as she got older the hoarding got worse.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America,hoarding behavior may present on its own or be a symptom of otherunderlying conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD),attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and depression.Frequently, hoarding tendencies will appear early in life, butsince parents can often control the level of clutter in a child'sroom, it may not be as apparent until the person reaches themid-20s or 30s.

Individuals who hoard may exhibit a number of differentbehaviors such as an inability to throw away possessions;indecisiveness about what to keep or throw away; severe anxietywhen attempting to discard items or when people touch theirbelongings; and an obsessive fear of running out of an item. Thereare also functional impairments that can affect personalrelationships and create financial difficulties, health issues andan extreme loss of living space.

At the 2012 National Fire Protection Association Conference andExpo, Judith R. Dicine, Practitioner In Residence at the Henry C.Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science at theUniversity of New Haven described the difference between a hoarderand a collector as a “hoarder has so much stuff that the roomsthey're putting it into have lost their functionalitycompletely.”

Hoarding creates a number of health and safety issues for theoccupants and raises coverage issues for insurers. There are tripand fall hazards, fire hazards, the presence of rodents andreptiles, as well as an inability to identify any leaks orstructural issues with a property since so much of the area ishidden and inaccessible.

Since there isn't access to toilets and showers, it's hard toknow where occupants have been bathing and going to the bathroom.One mold inspector described a condo where neighbors had beencomplaining about the stench from a unit. When he went in, theinspector found that the resident had been using the bathtub as histoilet.

“There are a few challenges when insuring a hoarder,” explainsAnna Bryant of State Farm Insurance. “First, it is rare that weidentify a person is a hoarder when reviewing a new policyapplication. There is typically no interior home survey, so wewould only know of a hoarding situation if it's visible from theoutside of the house.”

“Hoarders are usually identified at the time of a loss when weare brought in to handle a claim on the property,” says PaulJackson, an independent insurance adjuster with Professional ClaimsService in Allentown, Pa. “If we are at a loss at the request of aninsurance company and find a hoarding issue, we let the companyknow so their underwriting department can be advised of a possiblechange in risk.”

Cory Chalmers, a featured expert on A&E's “Hoarders”television show and an expert in hoarding and biohazards says thathomes of hoarders are more likely to “have losses created by fire,floods and mold. The lack of maintenance in hoarders' homes is themain culprit, but is compounded by the use of space heaters,portable cooking devices and other temporary fixes tomalfunctioning home appliances.” He says that the typical hoarderis frequently “too ashamed and afraid to call a repairman to fixbroken items in the home, so they ultimately grow into majorproblems.”

“Once the property is insured, the claim process for a largeaccumulation of damaged contents can be challenging,” continuesBryant. “Typically speaking, hoarders do not want to have theirproperty discarded, even in cases of severe damage. The valuationof damaged property requires all of the items to be inventoried andrestored, when possible. Often, large amounts of contents need tobe removed from the property to complete the repairs.”

For restoration contractors, hoarding claims can be very tricky.From an environmental standpoint, there can be a wide variety ofbiohazards such as animal waste, human waste, mold and trash. “It'svery hard to breathe in these types of homes,” says MichaelPelonero, director of Enservio's service on-site team. “There ispoor air quality for the workers as well as the homeowners after afire or flood.”

Hoarders frequently have items on top of items without any typeof organization. The objects may not even be useable, but they havevalue to the owner. Finding space to pack the items can bedifficult too. (Photos courtesy of BELFOR Property Restoration)

He says it's also a dangerous environment because contents arefrequently stacked from floor to ceiling and the challenge isnavigating the loss site without putting themselves in danger.“Imagine walking through your house in the dark,” he says. “Nowimagine doing that in a home you don't know with floor to ceilingcontents, in the dark and you don't know what you'llencounter.”

Pelonero described a situation where a technician found a watermoccasins' nest in a home under tons of contents. “You find thingsyou're not expecting like dead animals, wild animals, birds,squirrels, raccoons. You may even find something alive.”

In addition, the homeowner is frequently hovering in thebackground, nervous that someone will touch or remove their valuedpossessions. “Most hoarders are very protective of their belongingsand they claim they know where everything is,” explains GlennAllison, a contents sales estimator with BELFOR PropertyRestoration. “Sometimes it's an extremely emotional and grievingprocess to see them 'part' with their belongings, even if it's justto be cleaned.” When an owner is unwilling to relinquish control oftheir possessions it also hinders the company's ability towork.

Chalmers advises keeping the customer comfortable and buildingher trust because that will make it easier to work with her. “Thesame is true for gaining access to the area where the covered lossexists. If we just want to throw all of the contents away to reachthe covered loss, we will traumatize our client and they will fireus on the spot. It is imperative that we work alongside the clientto sort the clutter into categories they are comfortable with.Keeping the client in control or at least feeling like they are isa necessary evil, but one that will pay off for you and yourteam.”

Costs for a hoarding claim can escalate quickly if controlsaren't put into place and some decisions aren't made at the outset.Sometimes the insurer is aware that it is a hoarding claim and cangive the restoration firm notice that the claim will take severaldays. For the restorer, the challenge is to work with the insurerand the customer so the best outcome is achieved for allinvolved.

Pelonero says they have to approach the loss almost like apsychologist. They have to establish their boundaries up front sothey can make sure not to cross them. He says the insurer doesn'twant them to count trash, but the customer sees things like buttonsand clothespins as valuable, so the challenge is figuring out whatdoes or does not have real value. “We have to make that decision athousand times every day. Do you keep a used TV dinner box or anold calendar? We have to explain what's valuable to the homeownerand why. We also don't have to inventory everything just because ahomeowner thinks it has value, but frequently they don't understandthat.” He says he has seen hoarders give up their insurance checksjust because they wanted to keep their belongings after a loss.

Allison agrees that starting the inventory can be the biggestchallenge. “We need a space to move items in order to inventory andsometimes it's a struggle to find that clear space just to get anaccurate inventory.”

Determining new versus existing damage also presents a challengefor insurers and restoration contractors. “There can be a lot ofunderlying damage to a hoarder's home,” says Chalmers. “If acovered loss is reported, it is most likely due to outside agenciesfinding out and becoming involved. There could be existing waterdamage, and even fire damage in a home that is not related to theincident. This will become an important factor if it can bedetermined that the prior loss was outside of that coveragepolicy's limits.”

The policy limits will also affect what is repaired or replacedafter a loss. “Generally, the decision to repair or replace an itemdepends on the type and amount of damage sustained and whether ornot the item can be repaired/cleaned or needs to be replaced,”explains Bryant. “The standard for determining repair versusreplace is no different than that of non-hoarding claims. Thisprocess may include the use of experts to determine if the propertycan be restored or needs replacement.”

“Some carriers in their policy have limited coverage such as noreplacement value or actual cash value on articles that areoutdated or obsolete and stored and not being used,” says TobyBell, an independent adjuster and the principal of ProfessionalClaims Service, Inc. Articles not maintained in good or workingcondition may also be excluded from replacement.

The challenges with hoarding claims don't stop once the itemshave been inventoried, moved, restored or cleaned, and returned tothe homeowner. “Frequently there is no way to put the inventoryback into the home in some type of organized fashion,” says LoriYoung, president of Bartwood Construction in California. “Usuallythe items do not appear to 'fit' back into the home and the insuredcannot find anything once it has been moved.” This can cause theinsured to think that items are “missing.”

Allison agrees that returning the contents can be difficultbecause the items weren't returned to the same location they werein before the loss. He says hoarders are often disappointed withhow their belongings are returned to pre-loss condition becausethey don't remember what the items looked like. “Many times theitems appear with new 'scratches' and we have to show photodocumentation to prove that they were there before and it can be atime-consuming and tedious process.”

When working with hoarders, the National Fire ProtectionAssociation offers these recommendations:

• Be respectful and show concern for the person's safety.

• Match the language to the person. If the person calls items hercollections or things, use similar terminology. Avoid referring toitems as junk, trash or hoarding.

• Try to focus on the safety issues such as fires, fall hazardsand avalanche conditions.

• Show empathy and let them know you understand your presence maybe upsetting, but that some kind of change is necessary.