The Nine-Month Window to Claim for Lost or Broken Goods
A carton is opened weeks after the truck left and something inside is in pieces. What happens next is governed by a short written document, a deadline measured in months, and a set of response times the carrier is required to keep.
The rule in short
On an interstate household goods move the carrier may not provide a period shorter than nine months for filing a claim, or shorter than two years for bringing a civil action after it gives written notice that the claim is disallowed. A valid claim is a written communication identifying the shipment, asserting liability and demanding a specified or determinable sum. The carrier must acknowledge it within thirty days and pay, decline or make a firm settlement offer within one hundred and twenty.
A mover cannot give a shipper less than nine months to file a claim for goods lost or broken on an interstate move. It also cannot give less than two years to bring a civil action, counted from the day it gives written notice that the claim is disallowed.
Those are floors, not the deadline itself. The actual period is whatever the bill of lading says, and the bill of lading may be more generous than the statute. What the statute forbids is a carrier writing a shorter window into its own contract. Nine months sounds long. It disappears quickly in a household that is unpacking around a job, and it starts running from delivery, not from the day a carton finally gets opened.
What actually counts as a claim
A claim is a written communication sent to the right carrier that does three things. It contains facts sufficient to identify the shipment. It asserts liability for the loss, damage, injury or delay. And it demands payment of a specified or determinable amount of money. Get those three elements into a single document and the claim exists.
Several things that feel like claims are not. Bad order reports, appraisal reports, notations of shortage or damage on a freight bill or delivery receipt, and inspection reports issued by the carrier or its inspection agencies do not on their own satisfy the filing requirement, whether or not they name a figure. A note on the delivery paperwork is evidence, and valuable evidence, but a shipper who stops there has not filed anything.
Claims for uncertain amounts sit in an awkward place. A demand for a hundred dollars more or less obliges the carrier to determine the condition of the goods at delivery and to work out the extent of any loss, but it may not voluntarily pay until a formal written claim for a specified or determinable sum has been filed. Naming a number, even a provisional one supported by an estimate, is what starts the process properly.
A claim may be filed with the receiving carrier, the delivering carrier, the carrier that issued the bill of lading, or the carrier on whose line the loss happened. On a move sold by one company and performed by another, or handed between agents of a van line, more than one of those may be the same entity or none of them may be obvious. Filing with the carrier named on the bill of lading is the safe default, and filing with two is better than filing with none.
The carrier's own clock once a claim arrives
The response times are fixed and they are worth quoting back. Within thirty days of receiving a proper claim the carrier must acknowledge it in writing, unless it has already paid or declined it in that time, and the acknowledgment must state what additional documents or information it needs. It must open a separate numbered claim file, record the date of receipt on the face of the claim, and note the claim number on the shipping and delivery documents.
Within one hundred and twenty days of receipt it must pay the claim, decline it, or make a firm compromise settlement offer in writing. If it cannot, it must write at that point and at the end of each further sixty-day period explaining the status and the reason for the delay, keeping a copy in the file.
How the amount is worked out
Two things set the figure. The first is the valuation choice made before the move, which is the whole subject of why valuation is not insurance. The second is the settlement rule: when a household goods carrier settles a claim, it must use the replacement cost of the lost or damaged item as the base and then apply a depreciation factor to reach the current actual value.
That is why a claim built from receipts and photographs beats one built from memory. Replacement cost has to be shown before depreciation can be applied to it, and a carrier working from its own estimate of what a thing was worth will not be generous about the starting number.
Repair estimates are the other half of the file. Where an item can be restored, the cost of repair is the natural measure, and two written quotes from independent repairers are more persuasive than one. Where it cannot, say so plainly and support it. A carrier holds the choice of remedy under full value protection, so a claim that offers both a repair figure and a replacement figure is harder to stall than one that offers neither.
The order events happen in, and where each one bites
| Stage | Who acts | The timing that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | Shipper notes missing and damaged articles in writing | At delivery, with a copy of the notations handed over |
| Filing | Shipper sends a written claim naming a sum | No less than nine months from delivery |
| Acknowledgment | Carrier writes back and opens a claim file | Within thirty days of receipt |
| Disposition | Carrier pays, declines or offers a settlement | Within one hundred and twenty days, then updates every sixty |
| Civil action | Shipper sues after a written disallowance | No less than two years from that written notice |
Building a file that survives the argument
The inventory is the backbone. At delivery the carrier must give the shipper the chance to check that the same articles arrived and in what condition, to note missing or damaged items in writing, and to receive a copy of those notations. Do that even while the crew waits, and refuse any delivery receipt language that purports to release the carrier from liability, which is not permitted on that document in any event.
After that the file builds itself: photographs of the damage and of the carton it came out of, the inventory sheet with its numbered tags, the estimate, the bill of lading itself, and receipts or listings showing replacement cost. Cartons packed by the household rather than by the crew are treated differently in a damage claim, which is set out under packing done by the shipper compared with the mover.
If the carrier declines, the written disallowance is the document that starts the two-year clock for a civil action, so it should be kept rather than discarded in frustration. Arbitration remains available for disputes about loss and damage and about extra charges, and the shipper's share of the cost is capped at half.
One habit is worth more than all the rest. Send the claim by a method that produces proof of delivery, and keep the proof with the claim. The response times only bind a carrier from the day it receives the claim, and a carrier that says nothing arrived has an answer to every complaint about missed deadlines. Certified mail or a courier receipt turns the carrier's own clock into something a shipper can point at.
Points to carry away
- The filing period cannot be shorter than nine months, and the exact period appears on the bill of lading.
- The period for bringing a civil action cannot be shorter than two years after written disallowance.
- Notes on a delivery receipt or an inspection report do not by themselves count as a claim.
- A claim must state a specified or determinable amount of money to be valid.
- The carrier must acknowledge within thirty days and dispose of the claim within one hundred and twenty.
Questions readers ask
Does the carrier have to pay while it investigates?
No, but it does have to keep moving. Each claim filed in the prescribed manner must be promptly and thoroughly investigated, and the carrier must acknowledge receipt in writing within thirty days unless it has already paid or declined it. Its acknowledgment has to say what further documents or information it needs. If the claim cannot be disposed of within one hundred and twenty days, the carrier must explain the delay in writing and repeat that explanation every sixty days for as long as the claim stays open.
What happens to a damaged item the carrier does not want to return?
Where goods are damaged and are consequently not delivered, refused or rejected, the carrier must give notice where practicable and then sell or dispose of the property, directly or through a competent salvage agent, in a way that protects everyone's interests. It has to keep an itemized record identifying the property, assign a lot number, and record in the claim file the lot number, the money recovered and when it was passed on to whoever is entitled to it.
Is arbitration an alternative to filing a claim?
It is a route for resolving one, not a substitute for making one. An interstate household goods carrier must maintain an arbitration program for disputes about loss and damage and about charges beyond those collected at delivery, and must give notice of its availability before the bill of lading is executed. A shipper cannot be charged more than half the total cost of the arbitration. The claim still has to be filed in writing within the period the bill of lading sets.
Sources
- 49 U.S.C. 14706 — Liability under receipts and bills of ladingSets the nine-month filing floor and the two-year floor for suit after written disallowance.
- 49 CFR 370.3 — Filing of claimsDefines the minimum contents of a valid claim and what does not count as one.
- 49 CFR 370.5 — Acknowledgment of claimsRequires written acknowledgment within thirty days and a separate numbered claim file.
- 49 CFR 370.9 — Disposition of claimsRequires disposal within one hundred and twenty days and sets the depreciation rule for household goods.
- 49 CFR 370.11 — Processing of salvageGoverns what happens to damaged property the carrier disposes of rather than delivers.
- 49 CFR 375.503 — Inventory and delivery notationsRequires the shipper be allowed to note missing or damaged articles in writing at delivery.
- 49 U.S.C. 14708 — Dispute settlement programRequires arbitration to be offered and caps the shipper's share of the cost.
National Attorney Hub is a publication, not a law firm. This article states general rules and cites its sources; it is not advice about any particular case, and the law differs by state and changes over time.
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