When you want to get insurance for material objects – cars, houses, etc. – “binders” do not work in Costa Rica; your broker must run around to eyeball and take pictures of whatever is being insured. This inspection by the broker is to certify the item is in good shape; it is not to appraise. Insurance companies forbid brokers and agents to appraise anything. Nor do the insurance companies appraise anything – until there is a claim. 

The applicant must establish the value of whatever is being insured, and keep the value updated. It is inefficient to have insured values too high or too low. So what are the ground rules?

Automobiles

There is no official “blue book” to establish the values of vehicles for insurance purposes. You should use the market value – in Costa Rica, of course. If you didn’t recently buy the car, there are several ways to go: 

1. Check out the classified ads in a local newspaper to see the asking price for cars like yours, shave off a tad and use that value. 

2. Call up a dealer and ask. I don’t trust this method, as I suspect that when dealers think you are going to trade in your car, they appraise low – but if you simply want to know the value, they “bid” high, to make it appear that their brand does not depreciate quickly.