The latest updates on fire loss reporting: Alabama and Mississippi

Alabama Fire Loss Reporting

On March 2, 2015, the state of Alabama began accepting ISO ClaimSearch^® as a reporting agency to fulfill its fire loss reporting requirement under Alabama Reporting Statute 36-19-24.

ISO ClaimSearch reports the following:

• Alabama has agreed to waive “sound value” of property as a required field in its reporting statute.
• The state specifically requests the submission of property fire losses.
• Alabama requests a quarterly loss report. ISO will combine all submitted claim reports quarterly and send the submissions to the Alabama Fire Marshal as requested.
• All submitted property-loss-type fire reports will be passed to the Alabama Fire Marshal. To participate in the service, companies should continue to submit reports as they currently do, and all information contained in the reports will be passed to the Alabama Fire Marshal.

Mississippi Fire Loss Reporting

Beginning on May 1, 2015, all insurance companies doing business in the state of Mississippi should complete and submit the Fire Loss Registry Form for insurance companies electronically. Highlights from the memo released by the Mississippi Department of Insurance include the following information:

• All insurance companies that do businesses in the state of Mississippi are required to report fire damage in all instances causing $10,000 or more in property damage or in which there is an injury to a person or loss of life.
• Companies have the option to begin using the electronic form immediately to report fire losses.

ISO ClaimSearch has prepared and submitted an outreach to the state of Mississippi to determine if it will accept ISO ClaimSearch reports to satisfy this reporting requirement. If any agreement is reached with the state of Mississippi, ISO ClaimSearch will advise members with the release of a new bulletin.

ISO ClaimSearch will continue discussions with additional states to streamline or improve the compliance process in response to fire reporting statutes across the United States. We’ll continue to alert our members of any changes or additions to our state reporting list.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at claimsearchcompliance@iso.com.