Business Interruption coverage protects the potential earnings of the insured business while its operations are suspended as a result of damage caused by a covered peril. The period of restoration has a direct effect on the actual loss suffered. A typical definition in most ISO forms of the “period of restoration” is:… Continue Reading
Ordinance and Law Coverage generates a lot of questions whenever I give a speech about the numerous building codes which impact construction. Christopher Boggs is a great insurance educator. Two chapters from his book, Wow! I Never Knew That!: 12 of the Most Misunderstood and Misused P&C Insurance Coverages, Concepts and Exclusions, provide some of the … Continue Reading
Section 708.1.1 of the Florida Building Code, often referred to as the “25% Rule,” implements guidelines for roof replacement requirements. The section states, Not more than 25 percent of the total roof area or roof section of any existing building or structure shall be repaired, replaced or recovered in any 12-month period unless the entire … Continue Reading
Initiated Ordinance 300 – better known as the Denver Green Roof Initiative – was passed in November 2017 with a total of 137,917 votes. The ordinance requires that all buildings within the City and County of Denver in excess of 25,000 square feet, must now dedicate a percentage of the building’s roofing area to a … Continue Reading
Note: This guest blog post is by Brent Winans, Vice President of Clear Advantage Risk Management in Delray Beach, Florida (www.clearadvantagerisk.com). He provides fee-based (no insurance sales) risk management consulting services to larger clients and serves as an expert witness on both sides of agent errors and omissions cases across the country. Even if your … Continue Reading
“Ordinance or law” property insurance coverage is typically triggered when, following a covered loss to a covered building, an insured incurs certain costs due to the enforcement of an ordinance or law1 requiring or regulating the demolition, construction, or repair of buildings.2 What does enforcement mean for purposes of triggering building ordinance or law coverage? … Continue Reading
In our practice we are often called upon to represent clients where their claim for ordinance and law coverage has been denied. This is because ordinance and law coverage is one of the most misunderstood and incorrectly interpreted policy provisions there is. Although, one of our attorneys, Robert T. Trautmann, has previously written on the DEB … Continue Reading
Slow, delayed and late replacement and repair is the usual normal state of affairs after major catastrophes. In New Jersey and New York, slow and bogged down restoration and repair is the worst I have ever seen. Most insurance companies pay and work with their customers during post loss construction. A few insurance companies deny … Continue Reading
Ordinance or law (“L&O”) coverage is “[c]overage for loss caused by enforcement of ordinances or laws regulating construction and repair of damaged buildings.”1 Additional living expense (“ALE”) coverage “reimburses the insured for the cost of maintaining a comparable standard of living following a covered loss that exceeds the insured’s normal expenses prior to the loss.”2… Continue Reading
As Steve Jakubowski, President of Impact Forecasting, recently noted, “Historically, May is the beginning of peak tornado season in the United States.”1 Since that means tornado season remains in full swing at this point, this installment of my Oklahoma Coverage Series will address whether Oklahoma policyholders have enough coverage.… Continue Reading
My post on overhead & profit two weeks ago sure seemed to get people’s blood flowing. It has been a while since I have seen eleven different responses. We will definitely address this issue further in hopes of answering some of the many questions posed.… Continue Reading
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If an insurance policy says ordinance and law is an incurred expense, then an appraisal panel cannot set the amount of loss for ordinance and law until it is incurred.… Continue Reading
When rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many property owners are getting hit by a second wave of stress when they find their property cannot be repaired as it was before because building codes have changed. It can be very expensive to bring a building up to code after it suffers storm damage. This … Continue Reading
The policyholder owned a historic three-story brick building in the City of Elmira, known as the Armory Building. On March 10, 2006, a windstorm caused a portion of the Armory’s southern wall to collapse. The policyholder hired an engineering firm to assess the Armory’s condition. The engineer concluded that the collapse of the southern wall was … Continue Reading
Who thinks Section 627.7011 of the Florida Statutes (entitled Homeowners’ policies; offer of replacement cost coverage and law and ordinance coverage) applies, or was at least meant to apply, to all types of residential insurance policies? I do, but my recent experiences suggest that… …most, if not all, insurers do not. In a Hitchcock-like voice, … Continue Reading
Law and Ordinance Coverage (often referred to as "Code Upgrade Coverage") can be extremely complicated for those involved in any aspect of property insurance coverage. From a policyholder’s standpoint, Law and Ordinance Coverage is a counterintuitive riddle.… Continue Reading
Ray Kirby of Childress Engineering spoke at the First Party Claims Conference regarding the practical and technical issues building ordinances and laws have on insurance claims. He provided me with an excellent paper, Insurance and Building Codes, which touches on some of the topics he spoke about in his presentation.… Continue Reading
Many residential insurance policies in Florida have additional coverage for “Ordinance or Law” or code upgrade coverage. I wanted to write about this additional coverage in the context of the Hurricane Law series because it is important to understand how this additional coverage kicks in during a typical residential hurricane claim. In South Florida, many … Continue Reading
When a building has been damaged or destroyed by a covered peril, a policyholder may face an additional loss because building laws and ordinances governing the repair, reconstruction, or demolition of the insured property can significantly increase the costs.… Continue Reading
Every now and then, Courts follow the rule of law that insurance policies are supposed to be interpreted as a regular person would do so—not as a trained insurance law expert would interpret them. In DEB Associates v. Greater New York Mutual Insurance Company, 407 N.J. Super. 287, 970 A.2d 1074 (N.J.Super. A.D. June 1, … Continue Reading
At the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce Hurricane Seminar this morning, Brent Winans of the Plastridge Agency gave a fantastic presentation, "10 Ways to Get Ready for a Hurricane Claim in 10 Minutes." Winans holds the coveted CPCU designation and is Vice President of Risk Management Services.… Continue Reading
The coverage questions regarding problems with Chinese drywall are becoming ever more frequent in our firm. I will caution everybody that I am not giving a definitive answer. I can say that the analysis is complex, depending on which state law you are applying. As usual, the policy and the factual problems associated with the … Continue Reading
