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How to Price a Contents Claim When the Photos Are Gone

For total losses and catastrophic fires, Kevin prices from item descriptions — a typed list, a restoration company's inventory, or an exported spreadsheet — when usable photographs no longer exist.

Kevin Godfrey, KevinLast updated 3 October 2026

Can a contents claim be priced without photographs?

Yes — from a written inventory, where each described row is researched and priced like a photographed item would be, with the source link kept on the line.

This is a separate workflow, not the photo-based engine with the photographs removed. The engine identifies property from evidence; here there is no evidence beyond the description, so the specificity of the result depends on the specificity of the list. That is a real limitation and worth saying plainly before anyone relies on it.

When no-photo pricing is the right route

  • A total fire loss where the contents and any photographs of them are gone.
  • Property destroyed or disposed of before anyone documented it.
  • A restoration company's or mover's inventory that exists only as a PDF.
  • An insured reconstructing a list from memory, receipts and purchase histories.

What to put in the list

The same item, described two ways
FieldThin descriptionUseful description
ItemSofaPottery Barn Andes sectional, 3-seat, charcoal
Brand and model—Brand plus model or collection name where known
Size or capacity—3-seat; 65-inch; 25 cu. ft.
Quality tier—Mid-range, premium, builder-grade
Age—Years owned, which is what drives depreciation
Quantity1Exact count, since the line total multiplies by it

Age here means how long the insured owned it, not when the model was released. That is the number the depreciation schedule needs.

How the import runs

Parsing happens on the server, because real inventories arrive as PDFs rather than tidy spreadsheets. You then map the columns Kevin found to the fields it needs, preview the result, and import.

Four steps; only the last one creates anything
StepWhat happensCreates line items?
ParseThe file is read server-side and columns are detectedNo
MapYou confirm which column is description, room, quantity, ageNo
PreviewA true dry run against the mapped rowsNo
ImportRows become claim lines, 500 per request, resumableYes

Rows that look like section headings are flagged and pre-selected for removal, never dropped for you: a heading left in the list would be priced as property. The confirmation step states how many searches the import will run — two per priced item — rather than just the row count, because that is what it costs.

Photo-based versus written

Two routes to the same worksheet
From photographsFrom a written list
EvidenceThe item itself, in frameThe description someone wrote
IdentificationBrand and model from badges, plates and barcodesOnly what the description states
GroupingSeveral shots become one lineNot applicable; a row is a line
Review stepPhotographs are grouped and confirmed firstSkipped entirely
PricingPriced from a listing, source on the rowPriced from a listing, source on the row
DepreciationClass and ageClass and age
ExportIdenticalIdentical

Where it lands

kevin.co/claims/…/worksheet
The worksheet showing imported contents lines priced with sales tax, age, depreciation and actual cash value
Imported rows land in the same worksheet as photographed items, and export the same way.

Common questions

Can Kevin price a claim with no photographs at all?
Yes, through a different route. You upload the written inventory — a PDF, a CSV or a spreadsheet, including a restoration company's list or something the insured typed — and each described row is priced like a photographed one. What you lose is brand and model precision, because the only evidence is the description.
What information makes the results better?
Brand, model, size or capacity, quality tier, age and quantity, in that rough order of value. "Sofa" prices as a generic sofa; "Pottery Barn Andes sectional, 3-seat, 6 years old" prices as that. Receipts, purchase histories and manuals are worth digging out before the list is built.
Does the list go through staging like photographs do?
No. Staging exists to turn photographs into items by grouping and review, so it has nothing to do here: a written row already is a line item and goes straight to the worksheet.
Does importing a list create claim lines immediately?
Not until the last step. Parsing, mapping and previewing create nothing at all — the preview is a true dry run. The import itself is capped at 500 rows per request and resumes from a failed chunk rather than starting over.
What happens to section headings in the list?
Rows that look like headings — "Master Bedroom", "Kitchen" — are flagged and pre-selected for removal, but never dropped silently. A heading left in the list gets priced as if it were property, and you would rather see that choice than have it made for you.
Is a no-photo inventory as strong as a photographed one?
No, and we will not present it as equivalent. Item-level photographs establish what the property actually was; a description establishes what someone remembers it was. The no-photo route exists because total losses are real, not because it is as good.

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