What happens at a survey, and what to do before it

The surveyor establishes what happened and how much. They do not decide the claim — but what they find, and what is still there to be found, shapes everything that follows.

IndependentExtent and causePreserve before you move

How it runs

  1. 1

    Appointment

    The insurer or its agent instructs a surveyor, usually within a day or two of the first notification, and usually one already local to the cargo. On a small loss the insurer may decide no survey is needed and ask for photographs instead.

  2. 2

    Attendance

    The surveyor attends where the cargo is, and wants it as it arrived: in the same place, in the same packaging, with the unit and the seal available if they still exist. Their first job is to record the state of things, not to decide anything.

  3. 3

    Extent

    How much is damaged, how badly, and what part of the consignment is sound. This is where a claim is sized, and where a salvage value is first estimated.

  4. 4

    Cause

    The probable cause, and specifically whether the packing and stowage were adequate for the transit and whether the damage is consistent with the account given. The CTU Code is the usual reference point for the stow.

  5. 5

    Mitigation

    What can be done to reduce the loss — reconditioning, repacking, selling sound parts of the consignment separately, salvage. Reasonable costs of mitigation are reimbursable under the sue and labour clause.

  6. 6

    Report

    A written report to the instructing party, with photographs. It is evidence for the adjuster and for any recovery against the carrier; the surveyor does not decide the claim and does not pay it.

Do

  • Leave the cargo where it is, packed as it arrived, until the survey.
  • Keep the container or trailer available if you can, with the seal.
  • Photograph everything before anybody touches it — the survey may be days away.
  • Have the invoice, packing list and transport document to hand.
  • Tell the surveyor about the whole consignment, including the sound part.
  • Ask what mitigation they want done, and get it in writing.

Do not

  • Do not dispose of anything, however obviously worthless it looks.
  • Do not repack or consolidate damaged goods for tidiness.
  • Do not return goods to a supplier before the survey.
  • Do not sign a settlement or a release from the carrier.
  • Do not clean a contaminated unit before it has been seen.

Mitigation is paid for

Clause 16 of the Institute Cargo Clauses makes it a duty of the insured to take reasonable measures to avert or minimise a covered loss — and requires the insurer to reimburse the reasonable charges of doing so, in addition to the loss itself. Reconditioning, repacking, emergency storage and arranging a salvage sale are exactly this. Clause 17 records that measures taken by either side do not waive anybody's position, so doing the sensible thing does not concede the claim.

Common questions

Who pays for the survey?
The insurer instructs and pays for the survey it requires. A survey you commission yourself is your cost unless the insurer agrees otherwise — ask before instructing one.
Does a survey report mean the claim is agreed?
No. The surveyor establishes facts: extent, probable cause, salvage. The adjuster then applies the policy wording to those facts and recommends a settlement, and the insurer decides.
What if the surveyor says the packing was inadequate?
That points at exclusion 4.3, which applies at every clause level. It is a finding you can answer — with the packing specification, the photographs taken at loading, and evidence of what the transit actually involved. This is precisely why the photographs matter.
Can I start repairs before the surveyor arrives?
Only where leaving the goods would make the loss worse, and then photograph everything first and tell the insurer immediately. The duty to minimise the loss and the duty to preserve evidence pull in opposite directions here, and the insurer would rather be asked.
The documents a claim needs Protecting the recovery

Sources

This page summarises the instruments above. It is not the wording, and it is not legal advice. Where a summary conflicts with a convention text, a policy wording or a certificate, that document governs.

InsuranceScanner is an insurance intermediary, not an insurer — see the Terms for our role. Nothing here is a personal recommendation that a particular cover, sum insured or deductible is suitable for you. Where anything on this page conflicts with the certificate, policy schedule or wording issued by an insurer, that document governs.