Has COVID -19 devastated your business?
Your insurance could cover you
COVID-19 has caused significant interruptions to business in New York. If your New York business was harmed financially due to the Coronavirus, you may covered by your insurance policy for your losses. Contact our firm now to have your insurance policy and claim evaluated immediately.
COVID-19 has certainly had an impact on business operations, and the potential implications of insurance coverage in this time can cause unprecedented uncertainty and anxiety. As businesses and carriers review policies for possible coverages during the coronavirus pandemic, questions fall into certain buckets of coverage:
- workers' compensation
- property damage
- event/trip Cancellation
- supply chain interruption
- business interruption
- general liability
Does Your Policy Cover Business interruption?
The most direct loss felt by most businesses during the pandemic has been, and will continue to be, business interruption (BI). This interruption could be caused by an ill workforce, governmental orders, loss of suppliers, loss of customers or a combination of all of the above as a result of the pandemic and responses to COVID-19. Part of most businesses commercial property coverage, policies often require some kind of physical loss to the premises to trigger the BI coverage. This requirement has already triggered many questions about what physical loss looks like in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Importantly, the insured or the insurer must simply read the policy to make the best determination as to what is covered. There is no uniform rule for which type of policy covers these losses. As pointed out in an excellent article by Bill Wilson in the Insurance Journal, “insurance is not a commodity,” meaning no two policies are likely the same. The language of each policy, including endorsements, exclusions, riders and other codicils, will determine the chances that a claim will be paid.
Many policies include business interruption for contagious diseases. The language, matters, however, as some policies require a governmental order to shut down, actual presence of the disease or a combination of both to qualify for coverage. Also, many policies will likely exclude coverage for losses caused by a pandemic, partially in response to previous outbreaks of the SARS and H1N1 viruses. Specifically, the popular and ubiquitous ISO template business loss policy carries exclusions specifically for “pandemics” through language referencing pollution through contamination by disease causing agents.
Given the complexities of insurance coverage. we do NOT recommend you file a claim for losses relating to the Coronavirus without consulting with counsel.
