Property Claims History (5 Years)
Property claims history (5 years) records the frequency, cause and cost of a location's or portfolio's past property and business interruption losses, giving underwriters the primary empirical basis for grading physical risk and pricing the account.
- Category
- History
- Data type
- List
- Risk drivers
- Severity, Frequency, Accumulation
- Underwriting impact
- Premium, Deductible, Sublimit, Condition/Warranty
Typical proposal-form questions
- Please list all property and business interruption losses of the last 5 years, stating date, cause, location and paid/outstanding amount.
- Have there been any losses exceeding CHF 50,000, and what corrective measures were implemented afterwards?
- Are any losses still open, in dispute or subject to litigation?
Evidence
- Loss run report from the current or prior insurer
- Claims summary compiled by the risk manager or broker
- Risk engineering follow-up report on implemented recommendations
Why it matters for underwriting
A five-year property claims history is the single most direct empirical evidence of how a location actually performs under real operating conditions, complementing the forward-looking findings of a risk engineering survey. Recurring losses from the same cause, such as water ingress, machinery breakdown or minor fires, often reveal a maintenance or management deficiency that a one-off site visit would not necessarily surface. Underwriters use the pattern, frequency and cost trend of past losses to validate probable maximum loss (PML) assumptions, to benchmark the account through burning cost analysis against comparable risks, and to decide whether the declared exposure and protection standards are consistent with actual experience.
Capturing the attribute and evidence
Proposal and renewal forms typically ask for a line-by-line listing of all property and business interruption losses over the preceding five years, including date, cause, location, and paid and outstanding amounts. Underwriters corroborate the disclosure with a formal loss run report issued by the current or prior insurer, a claims summary from the broker or risk manager, and, for material losses, a risk engineering follow-up report confirming which corrective actions were actually implemented. Open, disputed or still-reserved losses require particular attention, as their ultimate cost is not yet known.
Effect on coverage, premium and conditions
A clean or improving loss history supports preferred premium rates, broader natural-catastrophe and machinery-breakdown sublimits, and a stronger negotiating position at renewal. Adverse or deteriorating experience, especially several losses from an identical, unaddressed cause, typically triggers deductible increases, cause-specific sublimits or exclusions, additional warranties, or, for repeated severe losses, a decline to renew.
Mitigation measures
Where the history shows a recurring cause, insurers and risk engineers usually require documented completion of outstanding loss-prevention recommendations, targeted investment in the affected building or process, and periodic monitoring to confirm the corrective measures remain effective over time.