Loss Runs Explained: What HVAC Underwriters See and How to Get Yours (2026)

A loss run report is your business's official claims history from an insurance carrier: every claim you have filed, what was paid, and what is still held in reserve, usually over the past three to five years. When a broker says pull your loss runs before an HVAC renewal, this is the report new underwriters use to judge how you have actually performed.

You request it in writing from your current carrier or agent of record, and most states return it within one to three weeks. This guide covers what a loss run report contains, how to request yours, what HVAC underwriters read into it, and how to fix one that looks worse than it is.

What is a loss run report?

A loss run report is a carrier-generated record of your business's insurance claims over a set period, typically the past three to five years. It lists every claim on a policy with its date, status, amount paid, and amount still reserved. Underwriters use it to price new and renewal coverage, so it works like your insurance credit report.

A new carrier cannot see your history, so the loss run is how they verify it before quoting. Each entry names the date of loss, whether the claim is open or closed, the amount paid, the amount reserved, the claimant, and the cause. The definition is plain: a loss run is a periodic report of claim information an insurer provides to its insured, per IRMI.

One detail catches HVAC owners off guard: each line of coverage generates its own report. General liability, workers comp, and commercial auto each produce a separate loss run, and an HVAC renewal usually needs all three. That is why a full HVAC insurance program review pulls every line's history at once.

How do I request my loss runs?

Request loss runs in writing from your current carrier or your agent of record, asking for the full three-to-five-year history on each line: general liability, workers comp, and commercial auto. Florida requires carriers to furnish them within 15 calendar days under Fla. Stat. 626.9202, New York within 10 days for commercial lines, and one statement a year is often free.

A written request, even a short email, starts the statutory clock, and many carriers reply within a few business days. The exception is a carrier you are leaving or a broker you are replacing, either of whom can drag. Florida entitles you to 5 years of history plus one free statement annually.

Ask for each of these fields on every line so the report is complete:

• Policy number and policy period
• Date of loss for each claim
• Claim status, open or closed
• Amount paid to date
• Amount reserved, still held open
• Claimant or party involved
• Cause or description of the loss
• Valuation date, the as-of date the report was run

New York adds a wrinkle: the 10-day rule covers commercial lines but statutorily excludes workers comp under Insurance Law 3426(g)(2), though regulators there recommend a 6-year workers comp lookback. Ask for the workers comp report by name. An agent of record can pull all three lines in one request, and a broker of record letter lets you keep your carrier while switching brokers.

What do underwriters look for in a loss run?

Underwriters read a loss run for two things: frequency, how often claims happen, and severity, how expensive they get. Frequency usually worries them more, because a string of small claims signals an operations or safety problem likely to repeat, while one large claim often reads as bad luck. They also check open reserves and how each claim has developed.

Claims also develop over time: as adjusters learn what a claim really costs, one that keeps growing worries an underwriter more than one that stays put. Carriers also weigh your loss ratio, the premium you paid against what they paid out, so clean years earn credits and one bad year follows you.

Workers comp claims carry the most weight, because the same claims on your workers comp loss run drive your experience modification rate. A single large injury can move that number, and what a $50K claim does to your mod for three years shows up long after the claim closes. For the full pricing picture, see how underwriters price an HVAC program at renewal.

What do HVAC underwriters flag specifically?

On a mechanical contractor's loss run, HVAC underwriters flag patterns tied to the trade: repeat commercial-auto claims across a van fleet, water damage from condensate lines and failed installs, fire from brazing and torch work, and workers comp claims from lifting, heat, and ladder falls. A cluster of one type reads as an uncontrolled exposure and gets priced or declined.

A run of van-fleet fender-benders reads as a driver-management problem, water damage points at workmanship, and torch fires raise questions about hot-work procedures. The workers comp injuries, strains, heat illness, and ladder falls, are the same events that push up your experience mod, which is why a three-year plan to lower your EMR and a clean loss run go together. (This trade-specific read is the part generic loss-run guides skip.)

How does an open claim reserve hurt my loss run?

An open claim on your loss run carries a reserve, the carrier's estimate of what the claim will ultimately cost, and that full reserve counts against your total incurred losses until the claim closes. So a single unresolved claim can make your loss history look worse than your actual payouts, and it prices into your renewal that way.

Your incurred losses equal what the carrier has paid plus what it still holds in reserve. Say a workers comp claim has paid out $8,000 but sits reserved at $45,000. Your loss run shows $53,000 incurred, and an underwriter prices from that figure until the claim closes lower.

Reserves linger because adjusters set them conservatively and are slow to close files (over-reserving is safer for them than the reverse). A stale open claim quietly taxes every renewal in between. The fix is to ask your carrier or adjuster to close or reduce stale reserves before you order final loss runs, then confirm the valuation date is recent.

A flat-fee broker like Coverwatch reviews an HVAC company's loss runs line by line before submitting, flags stale open reserves for the adjuster to close, and reads the run the way an underwriter will so nothing surprises the owner at renewal.

How do I fix or explain an ugly loss run?

You cannot erase a claim from a loss run, but you can control the story around it. Close or reduce stale open reserves, then submit a short written narrative with the loss runs explaining what happened and why it will not repeat. Underwriters price uncertainty, so a documented fix often earns a better renewal than the raw numbers alone.

A one-page cover note does the work: the cause of each notable claim, the corrective action, and the date it was fixed. Concrete changes move the read more than words, whether that is a closed reserve, a written safety program, telematics on the fleet, or a return-to-work program that caps how long a comp claim stays open.

Order final loss runs late in the prep window, after the reserve cleanup, then give your broker room to market the account with context. For the full sequence, follow a renewal checklist that starts 90 days out and decide when to shop your HVAC program. Watch the year-end premium audit in the same pass, since it trues up your premium the way reserve cleanup trues up your history.

A loss run report is written before you ever see it, so request yours now, check every line for open reserves, and read it before your broker does. Coverwatch pulls and reads your loss runs ahead of an HVAC renewal, requesting all three lines at once and flagging stale open reserves to close, as part of its flat-fee contractor insurance practice.