Home insurance claims: the documents that decide your settlement

A home claim is an evidentiary exercise. The insurer was not there, the surveyor arrives afterwards, and everything they conclude is built from what you were able to record and produce. Households that do well at claim time are rarely luckier - they are better documented.

The first 48 hours

Intimate the claim immediately, by phone or app, and note the reference number. Most policies impose a short intimation window, and delay is one of the few grounds on which an otherwise valid claim can be reduced or contested.

For theft or burglary, file a police FIR the same day. Insurers will not proceed on a theft claim without it, and an FIR filed days later invites questions about the sequence of events. For fire, obtain the fire brigade report. For a burst pipe or water ingress, get a plumber's written assessment of cause before the evidence is repaired away.

Photograph and video everything before you clean up. This is the instruction people most often ignore, because the instinct after a loss is to restore order. Do not move damaged items, discard anything, or begin repairs until the surveyor has inspected - beyond what is necessary to prevent further damage, which you are obliged to do.

You are expected to limit further loss. You are not expected to tidy away the evidence.

What the surveyor will want

The policy schedule and a copy of the wording. A completed claim form. The FIR or fire report where applicable. Photographs of the damage from multiple angles, ideally with something in frame for scale. An itemised list of damaged or stolen property with approximate age, purchase price and replacement cost.

For the structure, repair estimates from contractors. For contents, original invoices where you have them. Where you do not, warranty cards, product boxes, credit-card statements, old photographs showing the item in the room, and manufacturer price lists are all accepted as secondary evidence more often than people assume.

The inventory you should already have

Once a year, walk through the house and film each room slowly, opening cupboards and wardrobes. Store the file somewhere that is not in the house - cloud storage, or a copy with a relative. This ten-minute exercise resolves the single hardest part of a contents claim, which is proving what you owned before the loss.

For jewellery, electronics and anything individually valuable, keep invoices and, for jewellery, a valuation certificate. High-value items usually carry per-item sub-limits unless separately declared, and a declaration made after the loss carries no weight.

Understanding the offer

Read the surveyor's assessment when it arrives rather than only the number at the bottom. Settlements are reduced for depreciation on contents where the policy is not on a reinstatement basis, for the policy excess, for items falling under sub-limits, and for underinsurance under the average clause.

If a deduction looks wrong, you are entitled to ask for the basis of it in writing. If the response does not resolve it, the insurer's grievance redressal officer is the next step, and the Insurance Ombudsman after that. Most disputes that reach the Ombudsman turn on documentation, which is where this article started.