ACORD 27: the evidence of property insurance, field by field

ACORD 27 is the Evidence of Property Insurance: a one-page form an insurance agent or broker issues to a mortgage lender, loss payee or other party with a financial interest in a property, to show that a property policy is in force. It lists the property, each coverage with its amount of insurance and deductible, and the lender's interest and loan number. The ACORD 28 does the same job for commercial property, with set questions on coverages such as business income, flood and wind.

This guide covers who the form is for, how it moves from agent to lender, the fields section by section, the checks to run against the loan and how to automate the review.

What is an ACORD 27 form used for?#

ACORD, the nonprofit that maintains the insurance industry's standard forms, publishes the ACORD 27 as a certificate of insurance. The ACORD 27 and 28 go to parties with a financial interest in the property, usually lenders, who prefer the title "Evidence of" to "Certificate of". The current edition is ACORD 27 (2016/03), per ACORD's forms index of September 8, 2026.

ACORD's field instructions use a one-family dwelling and a homeowners (HO-3) policy as examples. The additional interest box names who the form is for:

• Mortgage lender or servicer

  Marked as mortgagee, with the loan number. Lenders ask for evidence when the loan closes and again at each renewal.

• Loss payee

  Marked as loss payee or lender's loss payable, such as an owner of leased equipment who wants it insured while the client has it.

• Additional insured or other

  The same box can mark an additional insured or describe any other interest.

It's often confused with three other ACORD forms:

• ACORD 28: evidence of commercial property insurance

  For commercial property, with the insurer's NAIC number and yes/no questions on business income, replacement cost, coinsurance, flood, wind and named storm. See our ACORD 28 guide.

• ACORD 24: certificate of property insurance

  Property coverage reported to a certificate holder, laid out like the ACORD 25, with up to six insurers.

• ACORD 25: certificate of liability insurance

  Liability, not property: general liability, auto, umbrella and workers' compensation. See our ACORD 25 guide.

How an ACORD 27 moves from agent to lender#

The borrower's agent completes the form from the policy and sends it to the lender or its servicer, which checks it against the loan's insurance requirements. A new form usually comes at each renewal, and its "this replaces prior evidence dated" box gives the date of the form it replaces. The check matters: Fannie Mae won't buy a loan if the lender can't tell whether the policy meets its requirements.

The sections of an ACORD 27, and what to extract#

The 2016/03 edition fits on one page. The numbers on the map match the rows of the table; the cancellation box is printed text only.

The checks to run against the loan#

Each check compares the form with the insurance requirements in the loan documents. The rules below are Fannie Mae's for one- to four-unit homes, as an example; your investor and loan documents set yours.

• Valuation and amountThe dwelling line shows an amount of insurance, and the coverage lines or remarks show replacement cost terms. Fannie Mae requires replacement cost coverage, except on roofs.
• Perils insuredSpecial is checked, or the policy covers every peril your investor lists; basic and broad cover only the perils they name. If a required peril such as wind is excluded, ask for evidence of the separate policy.
• DeductiblesEach deductible is within your limit. Fannie Mae caps it at 5% of the coverage amount, and a separate wind or wildfire deductible can't exceed 5% either.
• FloodMost homeowners policies don't cover flood. If the home is in a flood zone starting with A or V, Fannie Mae requires flood insurance and accepts the flood policy's declarations page as evidence. ACORD's evidence form for flood is the ACORD 29.
• Mortgagee clause and loan numberMortgagee is checked, not loss payee or lender's loss payable: Fannie Mae doesn't accept a loss payable clause in place of a mortgagee clause. The name matches your clause, such as the servicer followed by "its successors and/or assigns", MERS isn't named, and both loan numbers match.
• Named insuredEveryone on title appears as a named insured.
• Dates and signatureThe policy is in force at closing, its expiration is tracked for renewal evidence, and the form is signed. Fannie Mae accepts a certificate in place of the policy only if the insurer signs it.

For example, the amount, perils and deductible pass, but the lender is marked as loss payee instead of mortgagee. The form goes to a person, who asks the agent for a corrected ACORD 27.

How to automate ACORD 27 review#

1. Collect evidence in one queueRoute the insurance inbox, portal uploads and scans to one place.
2. Classify and splitSeparate the ACORD 27 from declarations pages, flood evidence and ACORD 101 remarks pages. Docsumo classifies and splits mixed packets on its Business plan.
3. Extract every fieldEach coverage line with its amount and deductible, the perils box and the additional interest. Docsumo reads ACORD forms, scans and handwriting included, and reports 99% field-level accuracy across 250+ document types.
4. Check against the loanRun the checks above against each loan's requirements, as workflow steps you set up: an AI step or your own Python code. Comparing the form with other documents in the loan file, such as the declarations page, is cross-document validation, on Docsumo's Enterprise plan.
5. Review exceptionsFields the model is unsure about go to a person, and clicking a field highlights where it sits on the page.
6. Send the data onPush it to your servicing or insurance tracking system through the API and webhooks, or export it to Excel, and track expiration dates there.

Docsumo reads the evidence and runs the checks you set up. Follow-ups with agents stay in your servicing or tracking system. Vertikal RMS uses Docsumo for COI verification through ACORD capture, and Arbor reached 99% accuracy on insurance compliance documents with it.

• 99%99%field-level accuracy across 250+ document types
• 95%+95%+of documents processed straight through, without manual review
• <5 min<5 minper document, down from 2+ hours

The bottom line#

An ACORD 27 is the lender's one-page summary of a property policy, and it's only useful once it's checked against the loan. Read every field, run the same checks on every form, and let people handle only the ones that fail.

Book a demo with a few of your own ACORD 27s, or start a free trial.

Frequently asked questions#