ISO's Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule(BCEGS)

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) is a leading source of information about risk. They supply data,analytics, and decision-support services for professionals in many fields, including insurance, finance, real estate, health services, government, and human resources. Their products and services help customers measure, manage, and reduce risk.

The Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) assesses the building codes in effect in a particular community and how the community enforces its building codes, with special emphasis on mitigation of losses from natural hazards.

The concept is simple: municipalities with well-enforced, up-to-date codes should demonstrate better loss experience, and insurance rates can reflect that. The prospect of lessening catastrophe-related damage and ultimately lowering insurance costs provides an incentive for communities to enforce their building codes rigorously especially as they relate to windstorm damage.

The anticipated upshot: safer buildings, less damage, and lower insured losses from catastrophes.

The BCEGS program assigns each municipality a BCEGS grade of 1 (exemplary commitment to building-codeenforcement) to 10. ISO develops advisory rating credits that apply to rangesof BCEGS classifications (1-3, 4-7, 8-9, 10). A grade of 98 is given if acommunity refuses to participate in BCEGS.  ISO gives insurers BCEGS classifications, BCEGS advisory credits, and related underwriting information.

Follow the links for frequently asked questions about BCEGS:

·        What? Why? When? And what do I do?

·        What determines a municipality's code-effectiveness classification?

·        How do building code-effectiveness classifications affect insurance pricing?

·        What other underwriting information will be available to insurers?

·        Facts and figures about BCEGS grades around the country