# Documenting Damage Before The Adjuster Arrives Photograph before anything moves, in daylight, from all four corners and both diagonals, then close on each damaged area with something of known size in frame. Photograph what is undamaged as well. A desk adjuster who never sees the vehicle decides the claim from those images. ## Why photographs decide the claim Most RV claims are settled by somebody who never stands next to the vehicle. A desk adjuster reads a file, approves a scope, and closes it. A field adjuster or independent appraiser attends occasionally, for perhaps twenty minutes, usually with the coach partly apart. The photographs are therefore not supporting material. They are the vehicle, as far as the decision maker is concerned. That single fact reorganises what is worth doing in the hour after a loss. Arguing about scope with somebody who has no images is arguing about impressions. Producing a photograph of the thing in question ends the conversation, and it ends it the same way in week one and week six, which no verbal account does. It also protects you against a question nobody asks out loud. When a shop opens a panel and reports more damage, the unspoken concern behind a reinspection is whether the damage was there or was created. Photographs of the closed vehicle at intake, and of the same area open at teardown, answer that before anyone has to be tactful about it. ## The six photographs that matter most Six frames, taken before the vehicle moves, will support a real conversation before you drive anywhere. Everything beyond them is useful and none of it substitutes for these. - Front three quarter, whole vehicle in frame, showing the front and one full side. - Rear three quarter from the opposite corner, so the other two faces are covered. - Straight on at the damage from roughly ten feet, so its position on the vehicle is unambiguous. - Close on the damage with a tape measure, card or shoe beside it for scale. - The surroundings from where the vehicle was standing, showing the clearance bar, post, branch or other vehicle. - The interior at the damaged wall or slide, because a wall that moved shows on the inside first. ## Scale, light and context Scale is what separates a photograph from evidence. A crack across a fiberglass cap looks identical at four inches and four feet unless something of known size sits beside it. Put the reference next to the damage rather than over it, and keep it in the plane of the surface so it is not foreshortened. Light matters more on a coach than on a car, because gelcoat and paint on a large flat panel hide deformation at the wrong angle and reveal it at the right one. Shoot in daylight, then shoot the same panel again with the light raking across it from one side. A ripple in a sidewall that is invisible straight on becomes obvious at a shallow angle, and that ripple is frequently the only external sign that something behind it moved. Context is the part owners skip. A close up with no wide frame to place it in is unusable, because nobody looking at it later can say where on a forty foot vehicle it is. Pair every close up with a wider shot of the same area. Two frames per location, one wide and one close, is the whole discipline. ## Photograph what is not damaged A record of intact condition is worth as much as a record of damage, and almost nobody makes one. The undamaged side, all compartment doors closed and open, every slide face, the awning fabric, the roof if you can see it safely from a ladder rather than by walking on it, the interior of every room, and the flooring at each slide opening. The reason is that repairs generate disputes about pre existing condition, and those disputes are unwinnable without images. A scuff on a compartment door, a stain on a floor, a delamination bubble on the opposite sidewall: each becomes a question about whether the shop or the transport or the impact caused it, and each is settled in ten seconds by a photograph taken before anything happened. The same set is useful for a reason that has nothing to do with this claim. Aftermarket systems, solar panels, a lithium bank, an inverter, a satellite antenna, custom bumpers and racks: photographed and dated, they become an inventory to take to your agent for the next policy period. Carriers pay for what they can see in a file, and a file created before a loss is worth far more than one reconstructed after. ## The notes that belong with the images Photographs record geometry and miss everything else. What you heard at the moment of impact, where it came from, whether there was a second sound, whether anything shifted while the vehicle was still moving: none of that is in an image and all of it directs a teardown. Then the symptoms that appear over the following days. A slide that stops short of its seal. A door that needs a shove. A creak over the first speed bump. A cabinet latch that will not stay closed. Each is a structural symptom wearing a cosmetic disguise, and each becomes attributable to age rather than to the impact once a fortnight has gone by. Dates matter as much as content. A note written on the day is evidence of sequence, which is the single hardest thing to establish later, and sequence is what separates an event from deterioration on a water claim. Keep the notes in one place, with dates, and bring them in with the vehicle. ## What we photograph at intake, and why it repeats Every repair order here is photographed at intake before anything is touched, at teardown, and again before delivery. Three sets, same vehicle, same angles where possible. That is a standing practice rather than a service, and it exists because a claim runs six weeks and memory does not. At intake we shoot the whole vehicle from every corner, then close on each damaged area with a scale reference in frame, then list every aftermarket system on the coach whether or not it was damaged. At teardown we shoot everything the first estimate could not see, paired against the intake frames, and the structural measurements go in alongside them. Before delivery we shoot again, which is the set that matters if depreciation was held back pending completion or if anything is questioned afterwards. Six photographs from you, sent before you drive up from Laguna Niguel, gets a real conversation started. The three sets we take are what the claim gets argued from. ## Questions ### What records should I keep while a claim is open? Everything dated. Your own photograph set from the day of the loss. The claim number and every adjuster name with the date you spoke. Each estimate and supplement version, not just the latest. Receipts for anything you bought because the unit was out of service. Modification records and install photographs, if the unit carries custom work. Claims are decided on the file, and the owner with the more complete file argues from a stronger position. ### Does a police report matter when a parked unit was struck? It matters more when parked than when driving. Without a report, a carrier has only your account of when and where the damage happened, which invites a wear and tear classification and, on an uninsured motorist claim, invites outright denial. File the report even with no other party present. Then photograph the scene, the surrounding paint transfer and anything on the ground, because paint transfer on a bollard has established fault more than once. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/insurance-help/documenting-damage/ OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Laguna Niguel, California. All work performed in shop. No mobile or roadside service. Licences: California Bureau of Automotive Repair ARD00288521; EPA CAL000367879. Published ranges are ranges, not quotes. Every figure traces to https://ocrv.guru/prices/.