What is an ACORD 28?

The practical answer

The ACORD 28 is titled Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance. It documents property coverage on a commercial building or its contents, and it is normally issued because a lender, a mortgagee, a landlord or a loss payee asked for it before releasing money or signing a lease.

It is a different document from the ACORD 25 that dominates vendor compliance work. The 25 evidences liability coverage. The 28 evidences property coverage, and the questions it answers are about the building rather than about who gets sued.

ACORD 25, 24, 27 and 28 in one paragraph each

The practical split is between a certificate and evidence. A certificate is addressed to an interested party and states plainly that it confers no rights. An evidence form is issued to a specifically named lender, mortgagee or loss payee, and is designed to record that party's interest in the policy along with the notice arrangement that goes with it.

• ACORD 25, Certificate of Liability Insurance: general liability, auto, umbrella and workers compensation. The form used for vendor and subcontractor compliance.
• ACORD 24, Certificate of Property Insurance: property coverage, issued to any interested party as information only.
• ACORD 27, Evidence of Property Insurance: property coverage, issued to a named lender or loss payee. Generally used for smaller or residential-style risks.
• ACORD 28, Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance: the commercial version of the 27, with more room for the coverages, forms and perils a commercial policy carries.

What is on the form

• The named insured, the producer, the carrier and the policy number and term.
• The location and description of the insured property, often with a building number tying it to a schedule.
• Coverage information: building and personal property limits, the deductible, and the valuation basis.
• Whether coverage is written on a replacement cost or actual cash value basis, and whether a coinsurance percentage or an agreed value clause applies.
• Perils insured, commonly shown as basic, broad or special form, and whether earthquake and flood are included.
• Business income or rental value coverage when it is carried.
• Named additional interests: mortgagee, loss payee, lender's loss payable, or a contract of sale interest, with the relevant address.
• A remarks block for endorsements, blanket limits, and anything the lender specifically asked to see.

What a lender or landlord should actually check

• The described location matches the address in the loan or lease, including unit and building numbers.
• The insured entity matches the borrower or tenant on the document, not a parent, an affiliate or a trading name.
• The limit is defensible against the replacement cost of the building, not against its purchase price or its assessed value.
• Coinsurance. An eighty or ninety percent coinsurance clause with an underinsured limit means a partial loss is paid partially.
• The deductible, especially separate percentage deductibles for wind, hail and named storm, which can be far larger than the flat deductible.
• That the correct interest is named. A mortgagee clause and a loss payee clause do not give the same rights, and a certificate holder line gives neither.
• Cancellation notice. The pre-2010 promise to notify was replaced with wording that follows the policy, so read what the form and the mortgagee endorsement actually say.
• The policy period. A form issued for a policy that expired two months ago proves nothing about today.

Where the ACORD 28 fits in a compliance program

Most vendor compliance work never touches an ACORD 28, because vendors are a liability exposure rather than a property one. It appears in adjacent workflows: a landlord verifying a tenant's contents and improvements coverage, a lender confirming collateral is insured, a franchisor checking a franchisee's building coverage, an owner tracking coverage on leased equipment.

The tracking problem is identical to the liability side. The form has an expiry date, the party who can reissue it is the producing agency rather than the insured, and the difference between a compliant and a non-compliant document is a handful of fields that a person has to read. If you are already chasing ACORD 25s on a schedule, the 28s belong on the same schedule.