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Pipe laying

INSURERS & RISK ADVISORS

A unified standard for evaluating risk, reducing losses, and supporting defensible claims.

Why Insurers, Underwriters & Claims Adjusters Need Private Property Standards

Excavation-related losses on private property frequently occur in environments with inconsistent documentation, missing records, undocumented facilities, and unclear standards of care. For insurers, underwriters, and claims adjusters, this lack of standardized private locate documentation makes claims difficult to evaluate and even harder to defend.

 

This stakeholder group includes insurance carriers, underwriters, claims adjusters, TPAs, loss-prevention specialists, captive program managers, and corporate risk advisors.

 

All of them face the same challenge: private property ground disturbance has never had a consistent industry standard.

 

Without a unified standard, insurers must evaluate claims with:

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  • Inconsistent private locate reports

  • Undefined limitation statements

  • No established standard of care

  • No consistent documentation requirements

  • Unclear roles between owner, locator, and ground disturber

  • Conflicting interpretations of liability

 

This “missing link” leads to preventable losses, ambiguous claims, and disputes that become difficult to settle or subrogate.

 

NAPUA shifts mindsets by establishing the first national standard for private property ground disturbance, giving insurers clarity where the industry has historically been fragmented.

How NAPUA Helps Insurers & Risk Advisors

NAPUA provides a structured framework that supports claim defensibility, improves underwriting consistency, and reduces the frequency and severity of excavation-related losses.

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NAPUA helps by:

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  • Establishing clear expectations for private locate quality and documentation

  • Defining standardized limitation language and reporting structure

  • Providing a risk-classification system that explains what was known, unknown, or unverifiable

  • Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of asset owners, locators, and contractors

  • Making claim reviews more consistent, objective, and defensible

  • Helping insurers identify whether proper standards of care were followed

  • • Providing structured documentation benchmarks that assist claims adjusters in evaluating due diligence and standards of care

 

This gives insurers and risk advisors a trusted reference point that has never existed before.

What Insurers & Risk Advisors Gain as NAPUA Members

  • A unified standard for evaluating excavation-related claims

  • Clarity when determining liability and defensibility

  • A framework for consistent underwriting criteria

  • Risk-classification tools relevant to private property

  • Access to national best practices for private locates and ground disturbance

  • Greater transparency into the expectations placed on contractors and asset owners

NAPUA Services for Insurers & Risk Advisors

  • Role-specific guidance for claim evaluation and loss prevention

  • Standardized documentation templates for analyzing locate quality

  • Training modules that clarify best practices and ground disturbance controls

  • Risk-classification tools used to determine whether proper due diligence occurred

  • Resources to support defensibility in claims, litigation, and subrogation

  • Opportunities to collaborate with industry experts through NAPUA committees

CALL TO ACTION

Ready to reduce ambiguity and improve defensibility in ground disturbance related claims?
 

Join NAPUA and gain the structure and clarity the private property sector has always lacked.

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