How to write a loss description an adjuster can use
An adjuster reads the loss description first and everything else through it. Two paragraphs, in the right order, decide how the rest of your file lands.
Two paragraphs, in this order
The first says what happened, where, and when. The second says what condition it left things in. Resist merging them — an adjuster is answering two separate questions and merging them makes both harder.
What happened
The source, the room or rooms, the date it occurred and the date it was found. Plain past tense. "The supply line to the dishwasher failed overnight on 14 March and was found the following morning."
What condition it is in
Which materials are affected, where, and how far. "Water tracked under the cabinets into the adjoining hall. Drywall is affected to approximately 18 inches on the north and east walls; the floor is affected throughout."
What does not belong in it
- Your scope of work. That is a different section and putting it here reads as pre-judging the claim.
- Coverage opinions. Whether something is covered is not your call and saying so weakens everything around it.
- Adjectives. "Catastrophic", "severe", "extensive" — an adjuster discounts them automatically and they cost you credibility for the numbers that follow.
- Numbers you have not measured. If the area is on the estimate, it does not need estimating again in prose.
The most common failure is length. A loss description that runs to a page of narrative gets skimmed, and the two facts that mattered — source and dates — get skimmed with it.
Dates, separately, always
Date of loss and date discovered are different fields for a reason. The gap between them affects category, it affects what could reasonably have been prevented, and it is frequently the thing a claim turns on. Guessing either is worse than saying "found on 15 March; date of occurrence not established".
Writing it while you are standing there
The best version of this paragraph is written in the room, not at a desk three days later from memory and a phone full of photographs.
On an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, Trueline will draft this for you from what it already holds — the cause, the dates, and every mark with its kind, its category and its measured area — running entirely on the phone with nothing sent anywhere. It writes sentences; every figure in them came off the room. You read it and change anything that is not how you would put it, because it goes out in your name.
Two worked examples
The difference between a description that works and one that does not is almost never effort. It is order and restraint.
| Weak | Why |
|---|---|
| “Catastrophic water event caused extensive damage throughout the property.” | No source, no dates, no rooms, and three adjectives an adjuster will discount. |
| “Water damage to kitchen and hall. Drywall and flooring affected. Recommend full replacement of affected materials and drying of structure.” | Better, but it has run into scope in the last sentence and still has no source and no dates. |
The same loss, written to be used:
What happened. The supply line to the dishwasher failed overnight on 14 March and was found the following morning.
Condition. Water tracked from under the kitchen cabinets into the adjoining hall. Drywall is affected to approximately 18 inches on the north and east walls of the kitchen; the flooring is affected throughout both rooms. Moisture readings were taken before drying began and are logged separately.
Source, two dates, two rooms, the materials, how far up, and a pointer to the evidence. No adjectives, no coverage opinion, no scope.
What to do when you do not know something
Say so, in the document. "Date of occurrence not established; first observed 15 March" is a much stronger position than a date that turns out to be wrong, and it is far stronger than silence — silence reads as an omission rather than as a limit on what anybody knows.
The same applies to the source. "Failure at the supply line to the dishwasher" and "origin not determined; water first observed at the base of the dishwasher cabinet" are both usable. Guessing between them is not.
Questions people ask
- How long should a loss description be?
- Two short paragraphs. Anything longer gets skimmed, and what gets skimmed with it is usually the source and the dates — the two things the adjuster most needed.
- Should the loss description include my scope of work?
- No. Keep them separate. A loss description that runs into scope reads as pre-judging the claim, and the adjuster is answering a different question at that point.
- What if I do not know the date of loss?
- Say so plainly and give the date it was found. "Date of occurrence not established" is a much stronger position than a guess that later turns out to be wrong.
- Can you give an example of a good loss description?
- Source, dates, rooms, materials and how far — with no adjectives and no scope. For example: "The supply line to the dishwasher failed overnight on 14 March and was found the following morning. Water tracked from under the kitchen cabinets into the adjoining hall; drywall is affected to approximately 18 inches on the north and east walls, and the flooring is affected throughout both rooms."
- What if I do not know the source of the water?
- Write what you do know and say the rest is not established. "Origin not determined; water first observed at the base of the dishwasher cabinet" is usable and honest. A guess that later turns out to be wrong is much worse than a stated limit.
Where this fits with Trueline
Trueline is an iPhone app that measures a room, takes it off, prices it from your own rate book and turns it into a proposal — with every length carrying whether it was scanned, drawn or measured, right onto the document a client reads. See how it works, or take the free templates and use them with whatever you already have.