Zurich Resilience Solutions offers hub for water damage prevention

Floods from hurricanes and excessive rainfall have recently been the focus of news headlines, particularly following the recent hurricanes Helene and Milton and deadly flooding in Spain. But what about internal floods that can occur when a frozen pipe bursts or a building’s plumbing springs a leak? Like the damage caused by exterior flooding, the damage from internal sources can be significant and extremely costly to the property owners and occupants.

That’s why Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS) recently created a Water Damage Prevention Hub via the ZRS Marketplace.

“Claims for water and liquid damage are among the highest of all claims received,” said ZRS Technical Director Mike Widdekind. “While our hub is for all industries, claims costs are exponentially higher for hotels, residential buildings, construction, office buildings and hospitals. Our belief is that providing information and knowledge will make a difference.”

ZRS Middle Markets Manager Jimmy Kazlausky agrees.

“Water damage is a leading concern for property managers due to its impact on insurance claims in the real estate sector,” Kazlausky said. “By implementing the 16 steps listed in ZRS’ Water Damage Prevention Program, facility managers can greatly reduce the frequency and severity of water damage scenarios.”

To effectively address this hazard, a facility’s water and liquid damage emergency operations plan should address the four phases of emergency management, Widdekind and Kazlausky said:

• Mitigation
• Preparedness
• Response
• Recovery

The Water Damage Hub was created to provide customers and non-customers with a destination for resources on how to create a water damage plan. It also highlights the services that ZRS offers to mitigate those risks.

The wide-ranging impact of internal flooding

According to Zurich North America claims data¹, three main sources make up 44% of all interior water damage in commercial buildings, namely toilets (15%), roofs (15%) and sprinklers (14%).

Facilities within the commercial sector are diverse, encompassing hotels, restaurants, office buildings, schools, hospitals, laboratories, and government and military institutions. The Zurich data underscores the value of investing in water damage prevention:

• More than 70% of commercial buildings suffer from underlying water issues such as leaky pipes or inefficient water usage
• Water damage claims account for 50% of commercial real estate insurance claims
• Weather-related incidents such as pipe bursts from freezing temperatures occur less frequently but with a higher severity than general plumbing or appliance malfunctions

 

 

1 Data drawn from Zurich North America Claims analysis for January 2013-January 2023