How to Document Non-Salvageable Contents for an Insurance Claim
The evidence that prices an item is usually destroyed by the cleanup rather than by the loss. What you photograph before the dumpster decides what the schedule can say.
How should non-salvageable property be documented?
Photograph it before it is discarded — the item, the manufacturer, the model label, the damage and the room — then build the line from that evidence. Treating an item as a total loss does not remove the need to establish what it was.
On a large fire, water or contamination loss the non-salvageable inventory is often the single most labour-intensive part of the claim, and it is the part most exposed to timing. Property is removed quickly for good reasons. Every hour after that, the identification gets harder and the eventual price gets softer.
What non-salvageable means here
In a property claim it describes an item being treated as unsuitable for reasonable restoration or continued use — severe fire or heat damage, smoke contamination, water, sewage, mould, or outright physical destruction.
Whether an item can be restored is a different question from what it would cost to replace. The inventory's job is the second one: document the property accurately and value it consistently.
Photograph it before it goes
| Photograph | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| The whole item | What the property is, and that it existed |
| The manufacturer mark | Brand — the single most discriminating search term |
| The model or serial label | The exact product, which is what makes a price specific |
| The damage | Condition and the basis for treating it as non-salvageable |
| A distinguishing feature | Tier and variant, where those move the price |
| The room | Location, and the context a schedule is organised by |
Four photographs are not four items
It sounds obvious and it is the most common way a large non-salvageable schedule goes wrong. A full shot, a side angle, a label and a damage close-up are one television.
Kevin stages photographs before any of them becomes a claim line: related frames are proposed as a single item, and you confirm, merge or split that proposal before it is promoted. The result is that the item count never exceeds the photograph count — which is also the first sanity check a reviewer applies to a schedule this size.
Damage documentation and valuation answer different questions
| Question | What answers it | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| What happened to the property? | Damage photographs | Establish what the item cost |
| What does it cost to replace? | Replacement research with the listing kept | Prove the damaged item was that product |
A photograph of a destroyed television does not establish a replacement cost, and a retail listing does not prove the insured owned that model. The schedule gets its strength from connecting the two — which is why identification has to come first and the source has to stay attached to the line afterwards.
When the item cannot be identified
Start from the strongest surviving evidence: room, size, visible design, a surviving label, purchase records, email receipts, retailer purchase history, older photographs, the insured's own recollection. Then let the line say exactly that much.
Do not manufacture a model number because a specific description produces a tidier spreadsheet. Kevin takes the same position in software: where the evidence will not support an identification, the line comes back with an empty, editable field rather than a plausible guess. A confident wrong description is the one that survives review and causes an argument later.
Depreciate by class, not by instinct
Once a replacement cost is established, depreciation follows from the item's class and its age. Applying percentages line by line from memory is what makes a large schedule hard to defend — the inconsistency shows up immediately when two similar items sit near each other with different rates and nothing on the row explains why.
Kevin classifies each line to an XactContents category and sub-category, and the class together with the age selects the rate across 31 categories and 87 sub-lines. It is computed server-side, so the worksheet and the export never disagree about a number.
Keep the chain intact
The schedule should let someone follow one item the whole way: photo → description → replacement → source → RCV → depreciation → ACV. On a claim with hundreds or thousands of destroyed items, that traceability is the difference between a file that is reviewed and one that is negotiated.
Common questions
Should damaged contents be photographed before disposal?
Can multiple damage photos represent one inventory item?
What if the model number is destroyed?
Does non-salvageable mean full replacement cost is paid?
Should a replacement price be researched before or after the item is identified?
What happens to photos of items that are not being claimed?
Build contents claims faster with Kevin.
Your first 250 line items are free, with no clock running. $249/mo after that, unlimited claims.
Related
- Rebuilding an inventory after a total fire lossThe evidence that usually survives, and a room-by-room method.
- Pricing a claim without photosWhen the property and the photographs are both gone.
- Contents inventory field guideWhat belongs on a line, and how specific to be.
- Pricing a discontinued itemSuccessor models, like-kind replacements and the resale market.