Why Your Piano is Not Protected (with Guest Brian Janey)

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The topic today is about why your piano is not protected. What do I mean by that? I’ve made many videos telling you how to care for your piano with a proper environment: having a Dampp-Chaser or Piano Life Saver system, a humidifier or a dehumidifier, protecting it from the sun, and servicing it on a regular basis. But I’m not talking about any of that today. Today I’m talking about insurance. You may think your piano is insured, but it very well may not be.

How do you insure your piano?

A lot of people have homeowner’s insurance and just assume their piano is covered. But if you have the unfortunate circumstance of a flood or a fire, you may find that without a rider on your insurance policy, it won’t be covered. But how do you even get a rider? How do you prove the value of your piano? Can you just show the invoice of what you paid for it? Or go to your local piano store and have them say what it’s worth? Unfortunately, that won’t work. An appraisal will have to be done by someone who is legally liable to the IRS or to banks and insurance companies. I have an expert with me today who’s going to talk about what it takes to get an official appraisal, which is a legal document.

I’d like to introduce Brian Janey, from Allegro Piano Service in Fallbrook, California.

Robert: Welcome, Brian!

Brian: Thank you, Robert, so much for allowing me to be on today. This is really an incredible thing. I’ve been a piano technician for 25 years. I have about 950 clients within 50 miles of Fallbrook. I stay very busy doing four pianos a day, five days a week. And in 2019, I joined the American Society of Appraisers and went through almost 200 hours of training with them to be able to do appraisals in an official capacity. I’ve had many situations where clients have had pianos that have been damaged in fires, in floods and other circumstances. And they were really horrified to realize that their insurance did not appropriately cover the instrument, because it was not scheduled on their insurance policy. You have to have an appraisal done to be able to do that. So it’s an important part of piano ownership.

I love helping people make music as a piano technician. I want the legacy of that music to continue in the home and not have some calamity stop it because it’s not covered by the insurance.

Robert: I’ve run into a lot of people in that circumstance. It can be a real nightmare. A lot of people don’t understand the difference between appraisal and inspection. Just like when you’re buying a home, you have your appraisal, but you also have inspections. These are two distinctly different things. And so it is with pianos. For someone like you, who does both piano work and appraisals, you can assess the condition, which enters into the value of a piano. I understand that you’re able to do this remotely by getting key pictures of the piano. So maybe you can discuss a little bit about these differences and the legal document. I know there’s the USPAP, the Uniform Standard of Professional Appraisal Practice, that enters into all of this. Maybe you can talk a little bit about the difference between appraisals and inspections and what’s really required of someone like yourself to be able to make a document that will hold up in case there’s a claim.

Brian:

The thing that’s necessary to be qualified as an appraiser is to go through an array of training.

I found myself being trained by some of the best personal property appraisers in the country when I hooked up with the American society of Appraisers. It was a real privilege. It is a very eclectic group of people. I found out I’m the only one in the American Society of Appraisers, which has more than a few thousand members, who actually do pianos specifically. So it is a very interesting circumstance to be in. You do get an extensive amount of training in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, which is something that applies not only to real estate and everything in between, but also to personal property like pianos. It’s been a fascinating journey. I have encountered a lot of very interesting people, folks that appraise everything from fine art to machinery. I even encountered one guy in a class who actually appraised herds of cattle! So it’s a really wide array of people that you find yourself amongst.

Robert:

I think a lot of people confuse appraisals with the value of the piano, because there are so many different values of pianos.

If you walk into the showroom of a piano store, there’s one value. If you look on Craigslist, there’s another value. If you want to trade in a piano, yet another value. The wholesale value is different from retail. And then a state settlement is another value. So appraisals are a whole separate issue that really satisfy not just these kinds of legal disputes and estate settlement and insurance claims, but also sometimes people want to donate a piano to a nonprofit and be able to enjoy a tax deduction for that. And I suppose they also need some sort of official document in order to not get in trouble later on with the authorities. Is that right?

Brian: Yes, there is an appraisal report that is submitted with people’s taxes, whether they’re doing something with an estate or they’re doing something with a tax donation. I’ve got a couple of circumstances right now with people with Steinways. One was donated to a church, another was donated to a college in Pennsylvania. I’m working on those appraisal reports right now. And I also have a circumstance with people getting appraisals for insurance purposes as well. So, yes, it is a legal document when you enter into the realm of calling it an appraisal. I kid with colleagues who are piano technicians that if you ever find yourself being asked to put a value on something and the people that are going to use the information that you’re providing are folks that wear suits, you need to make sure that you have a professional appraisal, because if it’s a an attorney, an insurance adjuster or one of their actuaries, or an accountant, they’re going to be looking for compliance to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. So it’s important to make sure that it is done right, because that is basically a document that people are using to make financial decisions.

Robert: Speaking of legal precedent, maybe you can shed some light on the 1959 case in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Merchants Insurance vs Lattimore. What was that about? What’s the significance of that in regards to appraisals and how does that enters into this whole equation?

Brian: We studied that case extensively in my coursework. The thing with that particular case was that this person had an array of artwork in their home and they decided only to schedule a certain part of it. They didn’t schedule all of it. Well, she had a fire in her home and what ended up happening is the insurance company only agreed to provide coverage and indemnification for the things that were scheduled. She took the insurance company to court to get compensation for the rest of the artwork that was also destroyed, but the court actually ruled in the insurance company’s favor. That’s one of the things that’s super important about people that have nice pianos. I’ve done appraisals even on lesser uprights and some of those could cost up to five figures to replace!

It’s important to make sure that you do get your piano appraised and that you inform your insurance company that you have one, because if you don’t tell them about it, the court precedent puts you in a very bad position if something does happen to it.

Robert: You have a unique perspective now that you’re trained in this whole appraisal business. But maybe you could tell us a little bit about the piano work that you do in your business. Tell us about what your realm of understanding is and how you’re uniquely qualified for this. I assume that there was a lot of thought that went into going into this field. And I’m sure your background as a technician for 25 years entered into it! What sort of things do you do on pianos?

Brian: I take care of all kinds of pianos. I have clients with pianos that are a little sketchy, a little tough to tune. And then I also have clients with wonderful American and European made pianos. I take care of pianos on a number of stages locally and I find myself working for some pretty famous folks on occasion, which initially was very intimidating. But I kind of got over that and realized I just have a job to do and then I leave. There’s a big local casino where I take care of pianos for shows and so forth. It’s pretty funny because I walk into a casino and I actually always make money! So it’s a neat gig. It’s such a beautiful thing to be in people’s homes and to be able to help them make music.

I think there are so many people that would enjoy this trade and there is actually a need for more piano technicians.

There have been a half dozen guys in my local neck of the woods who have all retired or moved away, which is probably one of the reasons why it’s a little tough right now to get an appointment with me because I’m booked up quite a ways in advance.

Robert: I can tell you when we first moved to Cleveland a couple of years ago, being able to get a team of piano technicians here was an arduous task. It took us a while because everybody was booked up months in advance. It’s actually a great field to go into, you can move pretty much anywhere! It seems like there’s a dearth of qualified piano technicians. And even the piano technicians who are subpar seem to be busy! So even if you’re starting out, it’s a great field because there are a lot of people who are aging out of this profession.

I know you have a couple of websites, but ThePianoAppraiser.com, is that where people should go?

Brian: Yes, that’s the one to go to for the realm of piano appraisal. If you go to that website and you click the contact me form, basically it’ll take you to a place where you put in your information, what kind of piano you have, what sort of appraisal work that it is that you’re interested in talking about, and I’ll be in touch with you.

Robert: Fantastic! And for people who are in the Southern California area around Fallbrook, what is your website for piano work?

Brian: ScheduleMyKeys.com. I service northern San Diego County as well as Southwest Riverside and Temecula Valley area.

Robert: You’re right in that nook over there. I remember it well! You’ve been a real godsend for us with all the pianos we’ve sold in that region over the years. And I’m just so glad you were able to join us, because this is a really important topic. A lot of people never give much thought to this. People spend thousands of dollars on the piano and assume it’s covered. I’m sure a lot of people listening to this are going to check with their insurance agents and contact you to get their piano appraised to make sure it’s covered in the unfortunate possibility that something happens to it. So I want to thank you again for joining us! It’s been a real pleasure, Brian.

Brian: Thank you so very much! I can do appraisals pretty much anywhere in the country just based on photographs and so forth. So I look forward to helping anybody that would like to make contact! Thank you so much for having me.

Robert: You got it!

Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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