Written Damage Assessments

What an Adjuster Is Actually Reading

An adjuster is not standing in your driveway. They are looking at a file, deciding whether the amount requested is supported by what is in it. Everything that follows comes from that one fact.

A total with no breakdown gives them nothing to approve. They cannot tell whether a section is being replaced because it is creased through the skin or because it is scuffed. So the file goes into a queue for a site visit, or comes back with questions, and a job that could have been settled in three days takes three weeks.

What Goes in the Document

We produce an itemised assessment, and it contains the same things every time.

The door is identified: manufacturer, model or series, panel construction, height and width, and the number of sections. That information usually lives on a sticker on the inside of the end stile or on the opener rail. Without it, nobody can price a matching section, and a claim to replace an unidentified door invites a low settlement.

Then the damage, component by component. Section three, left of centre, creased horizontally through the outer skin. Hinge at the number two and three joint, plate bent, fastener holes elongated. Left vertical track, deflected inward above the radius. Bottom bracket, hairline crack at the cable slot. Each line carries a reason, because the reason is what an adjuster approves against.

Then the remedy, and here we are specific about repair against replacement. A shallow dent in a flat steel skin can sometimes be pulled and filled. A crease that has broken the paint and stretched the metal cannot, because the panel has lost its section stiffness at that line and it will fail at the hinge under normal cycling. Saying that in writing is not padding. It is the difference between an approval and a denial.

The Photographs

Photographs are half the document. We shoot in three ranges.

Wide, showing the whole opening, the driveway and, if a vehicle is involved, the vehicle where it stopped. That establishes the event. Mid range, showing the damaged sections in relation to the ones above and below, so the adjuster can see how far the damage travels. Close, on hinges, rollers, track, bottom brackets and cable ends, with something in frame for scale.

They are taken before anything is straightened, unbolted or swept up. If you have already tidied, tell us. We would rather note it than have a carrier discover it.

When We Tell You Not to Claim

Often. A single section on a common steel door usually lands somewhere between three and eight hundred dollars fitted, and a great many homeowners policies carry a deductible at or above that. You would pay the full repair anyway and hold a claim on your loss history for nothing.

We will give you the repair figure before you contact anyone, so the decision is yours and it is made on numbers. That is the whole point of paying for an assessment first.

Cost and Credit

The assessment and photo set runs $95 to $175 depending on door size and how far the damage has travelled. If you go on to have us do the repair, it comes off the invoice.

Call (562) 897-4095 and we will get out to look at it.