Water Damage Tip #5: Document Damage

This Step Is Critical

Documenting your damage is of particular importance when you have flooding from weather or plumbing leaks, so important that we’ve broken this critical property protection step out of our blog post Water Damage? Follow These 10 Tips and expanded it.

Water Damage Tip #5 – Document Damage

After carefully assessing safety hazards and taking appropriate precautions, you’re ready to assess the damage and plan to dry and restore the property. Follow these tips to ensure you protect your property investment and can recover its value.

Record Damage

• Prepare a comprehensive list of all damage sustained on your property. Include damage to your residence or other structures, landscaping and personal belongings.
• Include a detailed description of the kind and extent of property damage incurred, and supplement these descriptions with photographs or sketches.
• When possible, include documents of ownership such as titles for vehicles, property and large machinery. If such documentation is unavailable, estimate the pre-damaged value of each item on your list.
• When recording damaged or lost belongings, list the quantity of each item, a description, brand name, where purchased, its cost, model and serial number (if appropriate) and your estimate of the loss amount. Attach your bills, receipts, photos and any other documents.
• Photograph damage from every safe angle.

Record All Cleanup Efforts

• Do all you can to protect undamaged property, but log your efforts and video record or photograph all cleanup activities, as well as before/after work.
• Don’t throw anything away before an insurance adjuster or damage inspector has seen it, unless local law requires you to. In that case, take photos of the property before disposing of it and keep samples for the adjuster or inspector to see. (For example, cut out a piece of wall-to-wall carpet.)
• Keep all receipts for any work done to repair damage, or for items purchased to replace belongings.

Contact Your Insurance Company (Abbotts Can Do This)

When you contact your insurance agent or Abbotts, have the following information ready:

• Your policy number.
• A phone number and/or e-mail address where you can be reached.
• A brief summary of the damage and the date it was sustained.

Abbotts works with all insurance companies and can handle the claims process for you, providing necessary documentation to your insurance company and making sure necessary repairs are covered. If you have water damage, call Abbotts now, and get back to normal fast.