Phone resting on a water-damaged kitchen worktop

The single biggest factor in how much a claim settles for is how well it was documented in the first 48 hours. Insurers settle claims that are properly evidenced; they reduce or contest claims that are not. Here is the documentation routine that holds up at every stage of the claim.

The four documentation streams

Every claim runs on four parallel documentation streams:

Photographic. Wide context shots, close-ups, item-level detail
Inventory. Each damaged item listed with replacement value
Receipts. Every cost incurred, from emergency repairs to additional living expenses
Communications. Every conversation with the insurer, contractors, loss adjusters, logged and dated

Get all four right from the start and the claim is on solid ground for the duration.

Photographic documentation

Phone photographs are admissible evidence in Irish insurance claims provided they are date-stamped and unedited. Use them aggressively:

Wide shot of every affected room from at least two angles
Mid-range shots showing the relationship between damaged areas
Close-ups of every individual item of damaged contents
Detail shots of evidence (water marks on walls, scorch patterns, the source of damage)
Photographs of the surroundings and conditions (storm damage to the wider area, etc.)

Aim for 50 to 200 photographs on a major loss. You cannot have too many. Back them up to cloud storage immediately so they cannot be lost with a damaged phone.

Inventory documentation

The contents inventory is room by room, item by item:

Item description (specific enough to value)
Brand, model, age where relevant
Condition before the loss
Replacement cost at current retail prices
Photograph reference
Original purchase receipts where available

For larger claims, a spreadsheet is the only realistic format. The insurer’s loss adjuster will provide their own inventory format if requested but yours stays the master document.

Receipt documentation

Every cost incurred during the claim should be receipted:

Emergency repairs (plumber, electrician, glazier, roofer)
Make-safe boarding and security
Drying contractors and dehumidifier rentals
Alternative accommodation
Additional travel and meals if displaced
Replacement clothing if soft furnishings were affected
Storage of salvaged items
Professional fees (surveyor, structural engineer)

Most policies cover these as additional living expenses or make-safe costs but only when documented. A claim with full receipts settles cleanly; a claim with receipts in fragments is open to dispute.

Communication documentation

A simple log:

Date and time of every call
Who you spoke to
What was discussed
What was agreed or promised
Any reference numbers given

Email confirmations of important conversations create a paper trail. “Just confirming our conversation today; you confirmed that the make-safe scope includes X and the alternative accommodation rate is up to Y per week” is the kind of message that protects the policyholder when memories diverge later.

The before-and-after problem

The hardest thing to document on a major loss is what was there before. Your phone backups are the best source: photographs of family events, social occasions, daily life, all incidentally captured the contents and condition of the property. Trawl through them carefully and screenshot anything useful.

Other before-and-after sources:

Social media photographs (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp)
Property photographs from when you bought the house
Estate-agent photographs from listings
Bank and credit-card statements showing purchases
Online receipts from retailers (Amazon, John Lewis, etc.)

None are perfect; together they reconstruct the pre-loss state. For the wider water damage claim or fire damage claim, this evidence is foundational.

What not to do

Throw out damaged items before the loss adjuster has seen them
Edit or annotate photographs after the fact
Sign documents at the property without reading them
Authorise major work before the insurer has agreed to the scope
Discuss settlement values informally with anyone

When to call a loss assessor

For any major claim, the documentation routine is more than most policyholders have time or experience to manage alongside everything else. We do this for a living. Engaging a loss assessor in the first 24 to 48 hours brings professional documentation discipline to the claim from the start.

The summary

Photograph everything, inventory everything, receipt everything, log every conversation. The four streams of documentation are the difference between a settlement that pays the actual loss and one that pays a fraction of it.

Written by the team at N.J. Carroll & Associates, insurance loss assessors and quantity surveyors, established 1988.

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