Preparing a Property Submission: Loss Runs, TIV, Building Updates

Your submission arrives as a package: application, statement of insurable values, loss runs, whatever supplements the agent attached. The first pass is triage. Does this account fit their appetite at all, before anyone spends time on price?

Revenue and years in business barely register here. Construction type, building age, the ages of the four major systems, and the claims history do the deciding. Your declared insurable value has to hold up too. Fail one filter and the account may not get quoted — or it gets routed to surplus lines at very different terms.

One number carries the most weight: total insurable value (TIV), the limit you're asking the carrier to stand behind. It has to reflect the cost to rebuild from the ground up — like materials, current labor, today's building code. Not the purchase price. Not the assessed tax value. Not a market value pulled from comparable sales.

Some commercial property policies include coinsurance provisions with a stated percentage; others use different valuation or margin structures. If a coinsurance requirement applies and the carried limit is too low, a covered partial loss may be reduced under the policy's formula.

Example scenario: An owner insures a building at 60% of its actual replacement cost, well under the 80% threshold. A partial fire loss lands, seemingly well within the policy limit. The co-insurance formula still kicks in. The carrier pays only the proportion matching what was carried against what should have been. The owner absorbs a real shortfall on a loss they assumed was fully covered. This hits partial losses, not just total losses. And it stays invisible until a claim exposes the gap.

Four systems come up on nearly every commercial risk: roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC. Their ages and update status move both eligibility and price. These are where most of the losses property carriers actually pay come from.

Roof: Wind, hail, and water intrusion through a failed membrane dominate commercial property claims. A roof past its service life raises the odds of a claim and its severity. Many admitted carriers won't touch an aged roof without proof of recent work — an inspection report, contractor certification, or permit record.

Electrical: Knob-and-tube, aluminum branch-circuit wiring, and original fuse panels carry elevated fire risk, and carriers know it. They ask directly. If some of the building was updated and some wasn't, describe the real state — not the flattering version.

Plumbing: Galvanized steel, original cast-iron waste lines, and polybutylene supply lines are what carriers probe. Water damage from a failed supply line is a high-frequency loss. Made partial updates? Say which lines were replaced and which are still original.

HVAC: A system past its service life invites pipe freezes, drainage failures, and mechanical breakdown. Equipment Breakdown coverage often rounds out a property program — it answers the sudden mechanical failure that standard forms exclude. Document all four systems as current, and the submission signals that the building's primary loss drivers are under control.

Prior carriers issue this report on request — every claim under your policies, line by line, usually three to five years back. Carriers request them by default. They tell the underwriter what happened, and what kind of building sits behind those claims.

Repeated water damage claims read as a plumbing or roof problem. A clean loss run — five years quiet, or minor claims only — is one of the strongest tools you have for good terms. When claims exist, attach a short narrative: what happened, what was fixed, what changed. Raw numbers with no context get read against you.

Loss runs don't arrive on their own. Request them from each prior carrier, and do it well ahead of renewal. That keeps a paperwork delay from eating your quote timeline.

Property policies assume an occupied building. Let one sit vacant past a set point — commonly 30 to 60 consecutive days under standard forms — and vacancy provisions restrict certain coverages. Vandalism, glass breakage, and water damage all climb in unmonitored space, so standard forms cut or drop those perils during vacancy.

Vacancy shows up mid-term all the time: between tenants, during a renovation, when an anchor leaves. Skip telling your carrier, and a loss in that window can land partly or fully on you. Some carriers offer a vacancy endorsement that extends coverage with proper notice. Others attach monitoring, winterization, and inspection requirements. Read the vacancy provisions every time occupancy shifts. That's how you avoid a coverage surprise at the worst moment.

ISO scores fire protection on a scale of 1 (best) to 10 (no protection) based on two things: distance to the nearest station and the quality of the local water supply. Property carriers plug that number straight into the premium.

A building near a well-equipped station with solid hydrant coverage beats one out in the country. When the closest response is a volunteer department a long drive away, the carrier prices that in. No reliable water supply adds more. Faster response means less severe structural loss — and that lands in your rate.

You can't move the fire station, but you should know your number. PC 9 or 10 buildings pay higher property rates and can hit restricted appetite in admitted markets. Own properties across several sites? Protection class swings from one to the next. Disclose it straight in every submission.

A complete submission carries all of it. An accurate insurable value with the basis stated — replacement cost, or a recent appraisal date if you have one. Construction details: year built, construction type, square footage, stories. Ages and update status for all four systems, documented where you can. Three to five years of loss runs from every prior carrier. Current occupancy and any known vacancy. Lender requirements too, if the building is financed.

What it can't carry is fog on the questions that matter. Blank system ages, a dropped claim, an insurable value under replacement cost — each sends the same message. Incomplete. And incomplete doesn't win terms.

BLIS reviews property accounts against this checklist before reaching out to carriers. Preparing a new submission or heading into renewal? Begin with the commercial insurance intake. For active coverage with certificate needs, email service@blisins.com. Portfolio owners will find asset-type detail in the real estate insurance hub and condos and HOA insurance hub.