Minute three
The claim is decided later, from photographs taken now.
An adjuster will be asked to pay for things that are in a skip by the time anyone visits. The only record of them is the one made in the first few minutes, before the room is tidied or the carpet is lifted.
- 00Wide shot of every affected roomFrom the doorway, so the whole floor and the water line on the wall are in one frame.
- 01Close shots of the damageSkirting boards, the base of walls, the underside of furniture, anything swollen.
- 02The thing that failedThe split hose, the corroded fitting, the tank with a rust trail. This is the shot that decides sudden against gradual.
- 03Serial numbers and labelsOn the appliance, the heater, anything being replaced. Later, nobody can remember the model.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
The shot that decides the claim
Standard homeowners wording answers for water that escaped suddenly and accidentally, not for a leak that ran for months. The failed component tells that story better than any description: a split in a hose looks different from a fitting that has been weeping long enough to corrode.
Photograph it before it goes in the bin, from two angles, with something for scale. Once the old part has gone, the argument becomes your word against an assumption.
Video is worth thirty seconds of your time
A slow walk through each affected room with the phone held steady captures things a set of stills will not: how far the water spread, which direction it ran, what was standing in it. Narrate what you are looking at while you film.
Keep the originals rather than sending compressed copies from a messaging app. Metadata carries the time, and the time is frequently the thing in dispute.
Keep the record somewhere that is not the wet house
Photographs on a phone in a flooded building are one accident away from gone. Send them to yourself, put them in a cloud folder, or email them to the insurer the same day even if the claim is not open yet.
Who needs the photographs
More people than you expect, and for different reasons.
- 01You own and live hereThey go to your insurer, and later to whoever buys the house.
Ask them: will you take your own photographs, and can I have copies? - 02You own and let it outYour tenant is on site and you are not. Ask them to photograph before they move anything, in writing, today.
- 03You are rentingPhotograph your own belongings separately from the building. Those are your claim, on your policy.
- 04Water came from another homePhotograph your ceiling before anyone opens it, and again after. The second set shows how far it had travelled.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
Where these figures come from
Published by someone other than us. Each link goes to their own words rather than to our summary of them.