Most people only find out what their insurer actually needs after something has already gone wrong — standing in a water-damaged living room, trying to remember what the sofa cost and when they bought it. The documents themselves aren't complicated. Having them ready before you need them is the part almost everyone skips.
Why claims stall — it's rarely about the damage itself
Insurers aren't usually slow to pay because they doubt something broke or burned; they're slow because they need to confirm what it was worth before it did. A claim with clear proof of ownership and value tends to move in weeks. One without it turns into a back-and-forth of estimates, follow-up requests, and waiting — exactly when you can least afford the delay.
The five things insurers actually ask for
Across different insurers and countries, claims documentation consistently breaks down into the same five categories.
- Proof of the incident — photos or video of the damage, plus a police or fire report where one applies.
- Proof of ownership and value — receipts, credit card statements, serial numbers, or dated photos showing the item in your home.
- Repair or replacement estimates — quotes for fixing or replacing what was damaged or lost.
- Third-party information — a contractor's report, a neighbor's statement, anything that corroborates your account.
- Your own policy documents — so you and the insurer are working from the same coverage terms.
The habit that matters more than any single document
The hardest category to produce after a loss is proof of ownership and value — because the thing that would prove it (the receipt, the box, the serial number) is often exactly what just burned, flooded, or got stolen along with the item itself.
The only real fix is documenting valuables before a loss, not after: a dated photo, the receipt, the serial number, kept somewhere that isn't the same physical location as the items themselves. It feels unnecessary right up until the one time it isn't.
What this looks like day to day
Fondly Home keeps a photo of every receipt alongside the product, purchase date, and price, stored separately from your physical home — so if you ever need to file a claim, the proof of ownership and value already exists instead of something you have to reconstruct from memory under pressure.