Address Standardization for Insurance Underwriting

Property insurance pricing depends on resolving a policyholder’s address to the exact insured property — flood zone, wildfire risk, and local building codes all vary by precise location.

The problem

An address typed inconsistently on an application can be resolved to the wrong parcel or the wrong side of a risk-zone boundary, leading to mispriced policies and disputed claims down the line.

How address standardisation helps

Standardising applicant addresses into discrete components and canonical expansions gives underwriting and claims engines a deterministic key. Variations like "Ocean Dr" vs "Ocean Drive" and "Unit 3" vs "#3" resolve to the same canonical string, ensuring accurate risk assessment against flood, wildfire, and hazard zone maps.

Example

POST /v1/address/normalize

curl -X POST "https://api.goodvat.com/v1/address/normalize" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOODVAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "query": "88 Ocean Drive Unit 3, Miami Beach FL 33139" }'

200 OK

{
  "houseNumber": "88",
  "road": "ocean drive",
  "unit": "unit 3",
  "postcode": "33139",
  "city": "miami beach",
  "state": "fl",
  "country": "USA",
  "expansions": [
    "88 ocean drive unit 3 miami beach fl 33139 usa",
    "88 ocean drive unit 3 miami beach florida 33139 usa"
  ]
}

Key response fields

Field	Why it matters here
expansions	Canonical address strings for deterministic join lookups against property risk databases and parcel maps.
houseNumber / road / unit	Resolves the policy to the exact insured unit, not just the parent parcel.
postcode	Used to key into regional hazard and flood-map layers.
state / country	Determines state-level insurance filing and regulatory compliance.