Walkway Inspections Vital for Insurance as Trip-and-Fall Claims Rise Sharply

The humble sidewalk has become the front line in a new insurance battleground. That’s where the number one liability — trip-and-fall claims — is occurring, and that’s where insurance providers are focusing their attention. "Trip and falls are definitely one of the most common claims that we have to file here," says Brice Reynolds, the loss control specialist at Mackoul Risk Solutions. The fallout from these accidents is that insurance providers are now performing stringent inspection requirements that can make or break your building’s insurance coverage.

The surge in claims has transformed how insurance companies approach exterior inspections. Before your building’s policy renews, surveyors visit your building to check conditions. “The inspector will come out and will survey the entire property inside, outside, railings, exterior facade, roof, fire escapes,” says Reynolds,  “and they will make a detailed report and note if anything at the building needs to be updated or fixed or if the sidewalk was cracked.” A single crack can generate a "loss recommendation" – industry-speak for required repairs – that must be addressed to maintain coverage. While sidewalks are generally the building's responsibility, curbs – those small lips connecting sidewalks to streets – and tree pits traditionally fall under city jurisdiction. "For the most part, the curbs are the responsibility of the city," Reynolds notes, “they don’t want the insurer to touch it.” It is the Department of Transportation who does the fix, and the insured needs to report the curb or tree pit damage to DOT and the city will confirm the request.

"Insurers used to be very lax with curb repairs because carriers used to accept that confirmation email and then mark the whole thing complete. As long as you report the curb, the carrier would be fine with that." Those days are over. Now, insurance companies increasingly demand full remediation before renewal, even when that remediation depends on city action that might take years. "Now, they're not doing that anymore," Reynolds explains. "They want to see final compliance, and the city might not come out to inspect the curb for three to five years."

Some carriers have become so skeptical of city response times that they're changing their requirements entirely. "Some aren't even accepting this anymore," Reynolds reveals. "You just have to get the city's permission to handle it yourself." The shift means that buildings must navigate both insurance and municipal bureaucracies simultaneously. They must document city permission to make repairs on public infrastructure, then complete those repairs at their own expense to satisfy insurance requirements.

While this shift demands protective steps, few buildings are taking preventive measures. "Unfortunately, not too many are doing their own inspections,” Reynolds notes. “They are just kind of waiting for the doomsday loss recommendation list to be generated." The solution may require a fundamental shift in how buildings approach infrastructure maintenance – treating exterior surfaces with the same attention traditionally given to boilers or roofs, he says. In today's insurance climate, that cracked sidewalk isn't just an eyesore; it's a threat to your building's financial security.