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Protect Yourself: Documenting Vehicle Condition for Accidents, Rentals, and Sales
Whether it's an accident, a hit-and-run, returning a rental or car-share, or selling a used car, disputes about a vehicle's condition almost always come down to one question: what did it actually look like, and when? Here's what's worth photographing.
Accidents and hit-and-runs
- Wide shots of the whole scene — both vehicles, the road, traffic signs, and skid marks if any.
- Close-ups of all damage, from multiple angles.
- License plates, and the other driver's insurance and ID info, if it's a multi-vehicle collision.
- Dashcam footage, downloaded promptly — many dashcams overwrite old footage on a loop.
- For a hit-and-run, anything that might identify the other vehicle: partial plate, color, make, and any nearby security or doorbell cameras that might have caught it.
Rental and car-share returns
- Photos at pickup, before you drive off — every panel, the wheels, the interior, and the fuel/charge gauge.
- Photos again at drop-off, from the same angles, right before you hand back the keys.
- This is what protects you from being charged later for damage you didn't cause, or that was already there.
Buying or selling a used car
- Full exterior and interior condition at the time of sale — panels, tires, dashboard warning lights, odometer reading.
- Maintenance records and any known issues, disclosed at the time of sale.
- This protects a seller from later "you never told me about this" claims, and protects a buyer's own record of what they were shown.
Why a timestamp helps
A photo's own metadata can technically be edited, so "this is what it looked like when I picked it up" or "this is what it looked like at the scene" can always be second-guessed. Proof Stamp anchors the hash of each photo — a fingerprint of its exact content — into the Bitcoin blockchain, giving you an independently verifiable record of when that exact file existed, checkable by anyone (an insurer, a rental company, a buyer) without having to trust you or them.
- Upload your photos or dashcam clip as soon as you can after the incident, pickup, or sale.
- The hash is computed automatically and the Bitcoin timestamp process begins.
- Once confirmed, download the originals, the proof data, and a verification report anytime a dispute comes up.
Report to the right people too. For accidents, that usually means the police and your insurer; for a hit-and-run, the police as soon as possible. Documentation supports those reports — it doesn't replace them.