Free printable claim checklist
Your Insurer Wants the Footage. Can Your Cameras Actually Produce It?
Something happened. A theft, a break-in, a delivery driver who slipped, a car that hit your gate. Now an adjuster is asking for video, and you are about to find out what your system can really do. This page tells you what to do in the first hours, what an adjuster actually asks for, the five export mistakes that get footage rejected, and a ten-point self-test you can run on your own recorder before you ever need it.
If it already happened
Six things to do today, before the recorder erases it
A recorder does not store video forever. When the drive fills, it starts writing over the oldest day, and it does that quietly. On a lot of small systems that loop comes around in one to three weeks. The evidence you need is on a countdown from the moment of the incident, so do these six things first and worry about the claim second.
1. Export the clip now, not later
Before anything else, save the video to a USB drive or a computer. Do not rely on it still being there tomorrow.The most common way footage is lost is not deletion. It is waiting a week.
2. Export far more than the incident
Pull at least thirty minutes before and thirty minutes after, from every camera that saw any part of it, not just the best angle.Adjusters and police almost always ask for the approach and the exit. A ten-second clip raises more questions than it answers.
3. Photograph the recorder clock next to your phone
Take one picture showing the recorder’s on-screen time and your phone’s time in the same frame.This is the cheapest thing you can do, and it settles the timestamp argument before it starts.
4. Write down the exact date and time window
Note it as the recorder shows it, not as you remember it. Note the camera names too.If someone else has to pull the file later, this is the difference between five minutes and an afternoon.
5. Turn off overwrite if your recorder allows it
Many systems have a lock or protect setting for a recording, or an option to stop recording entirely. Locking the day is safer than trusting the loop.If you cannot find the setting, stopping recording on that channel for a day is a reasonable emergency measure.
6. Do not delete or re-record anything
Keep the original export exactly as it came off the machine, even if you also make a copy to share.Sending the only copy through a messaging app and then clearing the drive is how usable evidence becomes unusable.
If you cannot get the file off the recorder yourself, call us. We pull footage off systems we did not install, including systems whose original company is gone. It is a short visit and it is time-sensitive.
What is actually asked for
What an adjuster wants, in the order they usually want it
Carriers differ, and your policy is the authority. But across the claims our clients have run footage for, the same seven requests come up. Knowing them in advance is what turns a stressful week into a phone call.
| What they ask for | Why it matters, and where systems fail |
|---|---|
| The incident itself | The part everyone thinks about. It is rarely the part that fails. |
| The window around it | Often an hour on each side. It establishes who arrived, from where, and whether anything was staged. Systems set to motion-only recording frequently have gaps here. |
| The original file | The file as the recorder exported it, with its embedded date, time and camera name. A phone video of the screen is not this, and it is the single most common reason footage carries no weight. |
| A viewable format | Many recorders export a proprietary file that only opens in the manufacturer’s player. Export a standard video file as well, or send the player with it, or the person on the other end simply cannot watch it. |
| An accurate clock | If the recorder time does not match real time, everything it produces is arguable. Drift and daylight saving are the two usual culprits. |
| Unbroken continuity | They want to see that nothing was cut out. Ten separate short clips look worse than one long one, even when the content is identical. |
| Who pulled it, and when | A short note — name, date, what was exported, from which machine. It costs a minute and it removes an entire line of questioning. |
A police report number is usually requested alongside the footage for theft and vandalism. File the report even if you do not expect an arrest — several carriers treat it as a condition rather than a nicety.
From the service calls
Five ways good footage becomes useless footage
Every one of these is something we have been called in after. None of them is a hardware failure. All five happen at the moment of export, which is the one moment nobody practises.
Filming the monitor with a phone
It strips the timestamp, the camera name and the resolution all at once, and it looks like exactly what it is.If the recorder genuinely cannot export, that is a system problem worth fixing, not a workaround worth keeping.
Exporting a file nobody can open
Proprietary formats with no bundled player get returned or ignored. Export a standard file too.Test this once, today, on any old recording. It takes two minutes and it is the test people skip.
Sending it through a messaging app
Chat apps and some email services re-compress video and drop the file metadata to save space.Send the original by file transfer or hand over a USB drive. Keep the untouched copy either way.
A clock that was never right
Recorders installed in a hurry are often left on factory time, or never adjusted for daylight saving.Check yours right now against your phone. If it is wrong, correct it before you need it, not after.
Cameras aimed at the wrong thing
A camera watching the register sees hands, not faces. A camera on the ceiling corner sees the top of a hat.Identification needs a camera at face height on the way in. See our placement checklist.
Nobody on site knows how
The one person who knew the password has left, and the system is now effectively locked.Two people should know how to export, and the credentials should be written down somewhere that is not one person’s memory.
The self-test
Ten questions to answer before you ever need the footage
Print this and work through it at your own recorder. It takes about twenty minutes. Every question is one we have watched somebody discover the answer to on the worst possible day. You do not need us to run any of it.
1. What is the oldest recording on the machine?
Open playback and go back as far as it will let you. That date is your real retention, whatever anyone told you it was.If it is less than thirty days, decide now whether that is enough.
2. Does the recorder clock match your phone?
To the minute. Check it after every daylight saving change.Wrong clock, arguable evidence.
3. Can you export a clip to a USB drive right now?
Try it on any random past hour. If you cannot do it calmly today, you will not do it at all under pressure.This is the single most valuable line on this sheet.
4. Does the exported file play on a normal computer?
Take the USB drive to a laptop that has nothing special installed and open it.If it needs the manufacturer’s player, find out where that player comes from now.
5. Does the exported video still show the date and time?
Burned into the picture, or in the file details. Either is fine. Neither is not.This is what an adjuster looks for first.
6. Is every camera still recording, or has one quietly stopped?
Check playback on each channel, not the live view. A camera can show a live picture and have recorded nothing for months.Discovered after an incident on more jobs than we would like.
7. Is it recording continuously, or only on motion?
Motion-only recording saves space and creates gaps exactly where the quiet approach happened.For claim evidence, continuous is safer on the cameras that matter.
8. Can at least two people get into the system?
Names, not roles. Write down who they are.One person with the password is one resignation away from no footage.
9. Where does the recording physically live?
A box on your premises, a cloud account, or both. Know which, and know who owns the account.If it is a cloud account in a former employee’s name, fix that this week.
10. Would the footage identify a stranger, or only describe one?
Watch a real recording of somebody walking in. Could you pick that person out?“A person in a dark hoodie” is a description. A face is evidence.
If you answered no to questions 3, 4 or 5, your system will not support a claim in its current state, and none of those three is usually expensive to fix. If you answered no to 1 or 6, it is worth having someone look at it before the next incident rather than after.
Home and business differ
What changes depending on who is claiming
The export mechanics are the same. What the footage is being used to prove is not.
- Homeowner, burglary or package theftFootage supports the police report and the itemised loss. The approach angle at the driveway or walkway matters more than the interior view. Doorbell clips often live in a cloud account with a short free retention window — download them the same day. See home security and insurance in California.
- Homeowner, vehicle or property damageA wide camera covering the street frontage does most of the work. What usually fails is night detail: a camera that reads a plate in daylight often cannot at 2am. Worth testing before you need it.
- Retail or restaurant, theft and shrinkThe register view alone is not enough. Entry, exit and the till, correlated in time, is what supports a loss claim. See retail camera installation.
- Any business, slip and fall or injuryThese claims arrive weeks or months later, which is precisely when short retention destroys the defence. This is the single strongest argument for ninety days on public-facing cameras.
- Warehouse, dock and inventory lossDock doors, yard and the loading area, with enough retention to cover a cycle count that finds the discrepancy late. See warehouse camera systems.
- Any regulated businessYour licence or your lease may set the retention period and sometimes the camera positions. Get it in writing before you size the recorder — that is what the business camera compliance guide is for.
The number behind all of it
Retention is the decision, everything else follows from it
Almost every failure on this page traces back to one number: how many days your recorder holds. Cameras, resolution and recording mode all matter, but they matter because of what they do to that number.
Slip-and-fall and injury claims commonly surface long after the day itself. Inventory discrepancies are found at the next count. Insurers frequently ask for thirty days and some regulated businesses are held to more. If your recorder currently holds eleven days, none of that is a hardware fault — it is a sizing decision that was made, probably by default, when the system went in.
The storage arithmetic, camera counts against thirty and ninety days with the assumptions stated, is set out in the business camera compliance guide. If you want the price side first, the CCTV cost breakdown and the cost calculator will get you to a range without speaking to anyone.
Adding storage to an existing recorder is often a modest job. Replacing a recorder that cannot export properly is a larger one but still far cheaper than a rejected claim. Either way, find out which one you are looking at before you need the answer. What a full install involves is set out on our Los Angeles security camera installation page, and for a business site, commercial CCTV installation.
Questions we get asked
Straight answers
How long does a camera system keep footage?
Whatever the hard drive holds, which is usually far less than owners expect. Small four-camera systems often loop in one to three weeks. The only reliable way to know yours is to open playback and find the oldest recording on the machine.
Will an insurer accept a video I filmed off the monitor with my phone?
Treat it as a last resort. It loses the timestamp, the camera name and the picture quality in one step. Always export the original file from the recorder as well, even if you send the phone video first because it is faster.
My installer disappeared and I do not have the password. Can the footage be recovered?
Often, yes. Recorders can usually be recovered on site, and the recordings themselves are on the drive regardless of who set it up. Do not wait, because the drive keeps looping while the password problem is being solved.
Does having cameras lower my insurance premium?
Sometimes, and it varies by carrier and policy. Ask your broker two things in writing: does a professionally installed system change the premium, and does it change the deductible or the conditions on a theft claim. The second answer often matters more than the first.
Can I record audio to support a claim?
Assume not. California treats recording conversations very differently from recording video, and many cameras ship with the microphone on by default. Unless you have specific legal advice for your situation, leave audio off. Our California camera privacy guide covers this in more detail.
Can you pull footage from a system you did not install?
Yes. It is a common call, and it is usually urgent because of the overwrite loop. Call or text and say what happened and roughly when — that tells us how much time there is.
The next step
If something already happened, the clock is the problem — call or text today
Text is usually fastest, and it works at 11pm. Tell us what happened and roughly when, and we will tell you straight away how much time you have before the recorder loops. If you can get the file off yourself we will talk you through it on the phone and charge you nothing. If you cannot, we come out. We do this on systems we did not install, including ones whose original company no longer exists.
You call or text
What happened, roughly when, and what brand is on the recorder if you can see it. About ten minutes. If the fix is something you can do yourself in five minutes, we will just tell you how.
We come out. Free assessment.
We recover the footage where it is recoverable, export it in a format an adjuster can actually open, and photograph the recorder clock alongside real time. Then we tell you what the system missed and why.
You decide what to fix, in writing
A written scope naming the actual equipment, the retention in days and the price. Often the answer is a bigger drive or two cameras moved, not a new system. Nobody arrives with a contract.
“It happened last week. Is it already too late?”
Maybe not, and there is only one way to find out. Some systems hold thirty days or more. Call or text before you assume the worst, because every hour you wait is genuinely an hour of the loop.
“You did not install it. Can you even get into it?”
Usually yes. We work on other companies’ systems every week — see service and repair. Tell us the brand on the front of the recorder and we can usually say on the phone whether it will be straightforward.
“I just need the clip. I do not want a sales pitch.”
Then that is what you get. Recovering footage and buying a system are two separate conversations and we do not staple them together. If your system is fine, we will say so and leave.
“Will you tell me my whole system needs replacing?”
Only if it does, and it usually does not. Most of what this page describes is fixed by a larger drive, a corrected clock, a recording-mode change or moving two cameras. See upgrading existing cameras before you assume otherwise.
“How much is this going to cost me?”
The visit and the assessment are free. Camera work in Los Angeles runs from about $1,500 for a small site to $30,000 and beyond for a large facility, and a retention or export fix sits at the very bottom of that range. Numbers are on the cost page.
“Who ends up with a copy of my footage?”
You do. The recording stays on your equipment, you keep the exported file, and we do not retain a copy. We do not need access to your video to service the system, and remote access is only set up if you ask for it.
“Can you talk to my adjuster or my broker directly?”
Yes, and it usually saves a round trip. Put us on the email and we will answer the technical questions in writing — format, timestamp, retention, camera positions — so nothing gets lost being relayed twice.
“Nothing has happened to me. Is this worth a call?”
Run the ten-question self-test above first. It is free and it costs you twenty minutes. Call us only if you answered no to questions 3, 4 or 5 — those are the three that decide whether a claim is supportable, and all three are usually cheap to fix in advance.
Free. About 10 minutes. No obligation. English and Spanish. Licensed California ACO 7755 and C-10, insured and bonded since 2016. Innov8av Inc., 269 S Mariposa Ave Unit 407, Los Angeles CA 90004. Reviews.io 5.0 from 22 reviews · BBB A+.