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A claim’s building can carry an occupancy type (building.occupancy_type, the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, occupancy type of the insured building) and a building type (building.building_type, the kind of building). Both are optional. The OSA app offers the adjuster only certain building types for each occupancy type. The API accepts only pairs the app offers (for now, all but two: see the note on manufactured_home and travel_trailer below) and refuses any other with 422 validation_failed, so a claim never arrives with a pair the app would not offer.

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The rule

  • A residential occupancy type, including residential_manufactured_home, takes a residential building type.
  • A non-residential occupancy type takes a non-residential building type. manufactured_home and travel_trailer are non-residential building types.
  • A building type sent with no occupancy type must be a residential building type.
  • An occupancy type sent with no building type is always accepted.

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Allowed pairs

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Residential building types

  • main_dwelling
  • detached_guest_house
  • apartment_unit
  • entire_apartment_building
  • cooperative_unit
  • entire_cooperative_building
  • residential_condo_unit_residential
  • residential_condo_unit_non_residential
  • entire_residential_condo_building
  • other_dwelling_type

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Non-residential building types

  • agricultural_building
  • commercial_building
  • government_owned_building
  • house_of_worship_building
  • recreation_building
  • detached_garage
  • storage_or_tools_shed
  • other_non_residential_type
  • manufactured_home
  • travel_trailer
manufactured_home and travel_trailer are non-residential building types, so today they are accepted only with the three non-residential occupancy types. With residential_manufactured_home they are refused, with the detail must be a residential building type when occupancy_type is residential_manufactured_home. A later release will also accept manufactured_home and travel_trailer with residential_manufactured_home. Until then, for a manufactured home that is a residence, send occupancy_type: residential_manufactured_home and leave building_type out; the adjuster chooses it in the app.

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When a pair is not allowed

The request is refused with 422 validation_failed and nothing is created. errors has one entry whose pointer is /building/building_type, and its detail says which building types the occupancy type takes. For example, "occupancy_type": "single_family_home" with "building_type": "commercial_building" gets:
Match on code and on the pointer. The wording of detail may change. See Errors. To fix it, send a building type from the occupancy type’s row in the table, or leave building_type out and let the adjuster choose it in the app.

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No occupancy type

When the claim has no building.occupancy_type, the building type must be one of the residential building types. A non-residential building type sent on its own, for example "building": { "building_type": "commercial_building" }, is refused in the same way, with the pointer /building/building_type. If your record has a non-residential building type, send the matching non-residential occupancy type with it.

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Values outside the lists

A value that isn’t in the lists on this page, for either field, is also refused with 422 validation_failed, like any other misspelled value. More values may be added to either list later.