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Opinion: Cat Losses and When Building Codes, Design Fail

Poor design, structural failures and building codes not being enforced--all of these factors can compound cat losses while creating a minefield of coverage complexities. One construction design professional weighs in.

By Eduard C. Badiu, P.E. | Updated on August 28, 2012

Over my 19-year career as a design professional in the construction industry—of which about 10 years have been spent in design, testing, consulting, and investigating residential and commercial roofs of every sort across southeastern United States—I have come to realize how many roof failures could have been prevented.

This is why in 2004 I called a well-known engineering firm that is exclusively preferred by large insurance carriers in south Florida and my insurance agent. I asked them to help me present a program to players in the insurance industry that was designed to offer a much closer view of the risks to roofs—and the subsequent risks to insurers. My goal was to bring a qualitative and quantitative approach to evaluating the insurable. Surprisingly, it seemed that not one of them was interested in hearing me, and the other could not reach too far enough into the upper levels of management to even be able to discuss it. Now, years later, the program has developed nevertheless and is known as the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection (OIR 1802).

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