Insurance Claim Damage Assessment: Cost, Hours and Process in Hacienda Heights

A carrier estimate written from photographs is usually close on a passenger car, because the structure is known and the parts catalog is finite. On a coach it is rarely close, because what sits behind the skin is a bonded sandwich wall on tube framing, mounted on a chassis from one manufacturer and bodied by another, and because the components that drive cost are the ones the camera cannot see.

That produces a predictable pattern. The first estimate is written low, the repair opens the damage, the real scope appears, and a supplement conversation follows. Supplements on RV work are normal rather than exceptional, and the outcome depends almost entirely on how well the original assessment was documented.

So the assessment is written for that conversation. Every finding is photographed from wide and close, measurements are recorded, moisture readings are logged with the dry baseline included, part numbers and lead times are named, and the labor is broken out by operation rather than lumped. An adjuster reading that file can approve it. An adjuster reading three phone photos cannot.

The single most common denial on RV claims is long term seal failure treated as maintenance. That determination is frequently correct, and it is also frequently applied to damage that a covered event actually caused. The difference is evidence.

Where a covered event opened the envelope and intrusion followed, the file has to show that sequence: the impact or storm damage, the opening it created, and the moisture pattern radiating from it rather than the diffuse pattern that decades of sealant fatigue produces. Those two patterns look different on a moisture map and we document which one is present.

We do not adjust claims and we do not make coverage determinations, because that is the carrier's role and pretending otherwise helps nobody. What we do is document condition and cause evidence accurately enough that the determination is made on facts. Where the honest answer is that the damage is wear rather than an event, we will tell you that too, before you file.

• Wide and close photographs of every finding, with a scale reference
• Measurements recorded against manufacturer specification where structure is involved
• Moisture readings logged with the dry baseline on the same coach included
• Part numbers, sources and lead times named in the scope
• Labor broken out by operation rather than presented as a single figure
• Prior repair evidence in the same area disclosed rather than concealed

The assessment is an in shop appointment. We do not perform assessments at a customer location, at a storage yard or at an accident scene, and we do not write estimates from photographs you send, because doing that would reproduce the exact problem this page exists to solve.

Where the damage is confined to surfaces, the assessment is one to five hours and sits in the band on this page. Where the extent cannot be established without opening the damage, the appropriate tier is the collision teardown estimate at one hour of body rate, $210, credited against an authorized repair. Adjusters are welcome to inspect at the facility with the teardown open, and insurance walk ins are welcome during business hours.

Work is billed direct with every major carrier. Insurance billed jobs may be billed at carrier negotiated labor rates that differ from the posted retail rates, and we will tell you where that applies to your claim rather than leaving it to appear on the invoice.