There is no such thing as putting your broker on notice, or notice-only claims requesting they don’t inform the insurance company!
From time to time, insureds request to have an incident submitted for “information only” – letting us know about the incident, but indicating that they do not want us to let their carrier know.
Putting your broker on notice will not protect you in the event the claim situation escalates or a lawsuit ensues. As such, the broker must either put the claim in to the insurance company, or confirm at a later date with the Association whether or not they want a claim filed. Ideally, a broker will take the notice and follow up with the insured in the near future to have the insured decide how to proceed. If they want it reported, a claim is opened up. If they don’t, then the file is closed and documented that the insured did not want a claim reported.
In today’s current insurance climate, when property damage is reported to most carriers, even when specified as “notice only” or “info only,” it will be treated as an active property claim. The carrier will assign an adjuster to investigate the matter and will likely want to inspect it right away. The rationale from the insurance carrier is that the policy gives them the right to inspect the property when damage is reported. If there is any chance that they may owe for a claim payment in the future, they want to see that the correct steps are being taken to properly mitigate further damage and that the damages are accurately estimated for a fair and reasonable cost. Claims reported as “notice only” or “info only” will almost always end up on most carrier’s loss runs as well. If an Adjuster comes to your property, the carrier incurs what is known as “expense costs,” and that amount goes against your loss runs regardless of whether an indemnity payment is made by an insurance carrier.
Notice or Info Only really only applies to Liability lines of insurance and those are reported to the insurance company that way. For example, a person trips and falls on your property and gets up and walks away indicating they are fine. That is a notice/info-only type of claim but you never know that it won’t turn into a claim at a later date. Some carriers may accept info-only claims, but your broker cannot.
