After Fire or Water Damage in a Block: What Managing Agents Should Record

Make Safety and Access the First Entry

Record who attended, when the area was made safe and which parts of the building remain inaccessible. Follow the advice of emergency services and qualified contractors. Do not hold up essential safety work for photographs or an insurer’s response. After a fire, keep any fire service instructions and note which areas cannot yet be entered.

If a flat cannot be entered, note who is arranging access and what has been agreed. Keep the contractor’s written findings, even if they are preliminary. A later handover should not depend on someone remembering a telephone call.

Separate the Policies and Responsibilities

Confirm who holds the buildings policy and who is authorised to contact the broker or insurer. The lease and the building’s management arrangements may affect who is responsible for different areas and works. A resident’s contents policy is separate from the buildings policy; do not assume one notification covers both.

Notify the relevant insurer through the policy’s route without delay, following its reporting requirements. Ask what it needs to inspect or retain before substantial repair or disposal and record the answer. Avoid promising residents that any particular cost or item will be covered before the policy and circumstances have been checked.

Capture Evidence Without Guessing

When it is safe, photograph the affected flat, common parts and any visible route of the damage. Use wider views to show location, then closer views of relevant details. Date the images and note who took them. Earlier inspection records, inventories or maintenance reports may help establish the previous condition.

Describe observations precisely: “water staining on the corridor ceiling outside Flat 3” is more useful than “Flat 3 caused the leak”. Limit access to images that show residents or their belongings and avoid collecting more personal detail than the incident requires.

Keep One Decision Log

Use a shared, dated log for calls, instructions, access, work and resident updates. A useful entry names the person who authorised an action and explains why it could not wait. Keep emergency measures distinct from permanent repairs, with photographs, contractor findings and itemised costs together.

Before non-urgent permanent repairs change the damaged area, check the policy and the insurer’s instructions. If urgent work cannot wait, record why and notify the insurer promptly.

At each handover, identify what remains unsafe or unresolved, what has been authorised, what the insurer has asked for and who will update residents. That gives the next person a reliable starting point, without treating an early assumption as the final account.

Darren Carter, Head of Marketing,  Independent Loss Adjusters Ltd.