What documents do you need for a hail damage claim? The claim file step by step

For a hail damage claim you need four groups of documents: from the customer (vehicle details, claim number, authorisation), from the inspection (technical assessment and photos), from the estimate (estimate and the estimate approved by the insurer) and from completion of the repair (after-repair photos, handover report, invoice). The simplest approach is to collect them in a single file assigned to the job, stage by stage, rather than putting everything together at the end.

Why the claim file is not a formality

With a single car, one missing scan is a minor nuisance. In hail season, with dozens of open jobs, the same gap means a call to the customer, delayed settlement and a job that drags on for weeks.

An organised claim file gives you three things:

• faster approval — the insurer gets everything the first time, without follow-ups;
• protection in a dispute — you have evidence of the car's condition before the repair and of what was agreed with the customer;
• continuity of work — anyone in the team can find the file they need, even if someone else handled the job.

Document requirements differ between insurers and types of policy. Treat the list below as a starting point and adapt it to what the companies you work with actually require.

Stage 1: documents from the customer at vehicle intake

Whatever you do not collect at intake, you will later have to chase by email and phone. At intake, collect:

1. Vehicle details — registration document (copy or photo), VIN, registration number, mileage.
2. Owner and contact person details — not always the same person. A leased or company car has an owner, a user and often someone else responsible for contact about the claim.
3. The claim number issued by the insurer, if the customer has already reported the claim, and details of the policy under which it is being handled.
4. An authorisation for the workshop, if the repair is to be settled directly with the insurer. Its form depends on the insurer — check the required template.
5. Contact consents — the phone number and email address at which the customer wants to receive updates about the repair.

A short intake report is also good practice: the car's condition, its contents, damage unrelated to hail (scratches, chips, previous repairs). The latter saves unpleasant conversations at handover.

Stage 2: inspection — technical assessment and photos

This is the heart of the file. If the inspection is incomplete, everything produced afterwards will be easy to challenge.

The technical assessment should include:

• vehicle and customer details;
• a list of damaged panels (bonnet, roof, wings, doors, pillars, boot lid, etc.);
• for each panel, the number of dents in size bands — up to 40 mm, 41–70 mm and above 70 mm;
• the panel material (steel or aluminium) and whether the panel needs paintwork;
• the technician's notes, e.g. on access from behind, cracked paint or previous repairs.

The photos must show the whole car and each damaged panel separately, with the dents visible. How to take them so that nobody can challenge them is covered in the article how to photograph hail damage.

In WE-PDR you do the assessment on your phone at the car, and the vehicle inspection immediately becomes a technical assessment PDF with photos, filed in the job folder.

Stage 3: the estimate and the insurer's decision

The repair estimate is prepared on the basis of the inspection. The file should contain:

• the repair calculation — PDR repair, surcharges for larger dents, aluminium and paintwork, removals, part replacements, net, VAT and gross amounts;
• the vehicle value used in the calculations, if you calculate the ratio of repair cost to the car's value;
• correspondence with the insurer — what was sent, when and to whom;
• the estimate approved by the insurer or its decision: full approval, partial approval, a request for additional information, total loss.

Keep track of versions. The estimate often changes after a conversation with the claims handler or after disassembly, when hidden damage comes to light. If there are three files called “estimate” in the folder, in a month nobody will know which one applies. A separate folder for the estimate approved by the insurer solves this problem: only the version on which settlement is based goes there.

Stage 4: repair, handover and settlement

The file does not end with approval. After the repair, add:

1. Parts documents — orders and invoices, if panels were replaced.
2. A supplement to the estimate, if additional damage came to light during the repair, together with the insurer's decision.
3. After-repair photos — the same shots as before, so they can be compared.
4. A handover report signed by the customer.
5. The invoice for the client and confirmation that it was sent.

“After” photos are underrated. When a customer reports a few weeks later that a dent has come back or was never repaired, comparing the before and after shots ends the discussion.

How to organise the file so it works for the team

The list of documents is half the battle. The other half is how they are stored. Simple rules work well:

• One file per job, not per customer and not a folder on the technician's phone.
• Categories instead of one pile of files — separate customer documents, workshop documents, technical assessments, estimates and the estimate approved by the insurer.
• Role-based access — the registration document or the customer's personal data do not need to be visible to every technician.
• Deliberate confirmation of completeness — someone responsible marks the file as complete. The fact that “something is in there” guarantees nothing.
• Sending from one place — so you know what was sent to the insurer and when.

In WE-PDR, the claim file has exactly these categories: customer documents, workshop documents, technical assessments, estimates and “Estimate approved by the insurer”. Generated documents have successive versions, completeness of the file is confirmed manually, and you send selected files from the job by email with a link to the photo gallery. You will find details in the feature description PDF documents and sending.

The most common gaps in a hail damage claim file

In workshop practice, the most commonly missing items are:

• photos of individual panels — there are only shots of the whole car;
• information on dent size, not just their number;
• damage unrelated to hail, recorded at intake;
• clear information on which version of the estimate was approved;
• after-repair photos.

Each of these gaps usually surfaces at the least convenient moment: at settlement or in a complaint. If you want to see how the documents connect with the next steps of the job, read about handling a hail damage claim under comprehensive cover from the workshop's perspective.