Does Florida Commercial Property Insurance Cover Losses Due to COVID-19?

If your Florida business has been forced to close due to the outbreak of COVID-19, you might be thinking about turning to your commercial property insurance to help you cover your losses. After all, the reason you have insurance is to pay for losses due to unforeseen threats to your business’s survival. However, insurance matters are rarely straightforward, and this is no exception.

In this blog post, I’m going to discuss business interruption coverage and whether or not it applies to interruptions due to COVID-19. First we’ll look at what business interruption coverage typically covers, and then we’ll examine ambiguities and questions emerging during the present health crisis.

Florida Business Interruption Coverage

First-party Florida commercial property insurance policies typically include coverage for decreased or lost earnings due to a covered peril that necessitated suspending business operations. In other words, if you have to shut down your business because of a covered peril, such as a fire, your insurance company will cover your fixed costs and profit loss during the time it takes to repair or restore your property.

This business interruption coverage may be included in an endorsement in your commercial all-risk property insurance, or it may be a separate, stand-alone policy. Whatever the case, the loss of earnings has to have occurred due to the suspension of business that resulted from a covered cause of loss, and insurance companies usually require direct physical damage to covered property for this type of coverage to apply.

This might seem clear-cut, but determining what constitutes “direct physical damage” is not always easy. For example, if a business closes its doors because the building it’s housed in is on the verge of collapsing, can the resulting loss of profits be interpreted as a loss due to direct physical damage? The damage has not yet occurred, but the threat of damage is very real. In cases like this, ambiguities arise that may be applicable to the current situation.

The Novel Coronavirus and Business Interruption Insurance

Since it appears that the existence of novel coronavirus in a commercial environment poses a direct threat to employees, customers and the business itself, we might be tempted to conclude that it constitutes direct physical damage. Again, however, the applicability of the concept of direct physical damage to the existence of the virus in a particular context is not clear-cut.

To analyze the applicability of the concept of direct physical damage, we have to answer questions about the effect of the virus’s presence on a business. Does the virus’s presence mean that the business is inoperable or the physical property is uninhabitable? Perhaps not, since the environment could be sanitized. Does the fact that people who came in contact with the virus at a place of business got infected mean that the business must close and therefore suffer losses? Again, perhaps not.

Another thing to consider is that your insurance policy most likely has exclusions for pollution and contaminants that could be interpreted to exclude coverage for losses due to a virus. In addition, even if viruses are not explicitly included in the exclusions, your insurance carrier could hold that they are indeed a pollutant.

The Insurance Industry’s Statement on Business Interruption Coverage

The response of four national insurance industry organizations’ leaders to a letter from a bipartisan group of U.S. House members provides guidance on this issue. The representatives argued that COVID-19 related losses should be included in business interruption coverage. The insurance industry leaders responded in no uncertain terms, saying: “Business interruption policies do not, and were not designed to, provide coverage against communicable diseases such as COVID-19.”

Here’s what we still don’t know, though: Does this “decree” apply to all business interruption policies? Will there be special instances of applicability? Will different insurance companies apply different criteria in determining applicability? Will the courts side with insurers on this issue?

Get Advice on Business Interruption Coverage from an Experienced Florida Insurance Claim Attorney

To get answers to your questions about business interruption insurance, you should have an experienced insurance claim attorney examine your policy. Like the industry organization leaders who responded negatively to the congressional representatives’ request, your insurance agent and insurance company representatives might quickly tell you your business is not covered for COVID-19 related losses. In contrast, the insurance claim attorneys at Malik Law will closely and carefully analyze your policy, looking for specific ambiguities or omissions that could allow for coverage.

The skilled attorneys of Malik Law have helped clients recover millions in property insurance, personal injury, and commercial litigation matters and want to help you. If you have questions or concerns about your commercial property insurance, please contact us. We know how insurance companies, insurance policies, and the law work and will fight to ensure your rights.

Call us today at 407-500-1000 or submit the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website for a free consultation with one of our expert Orlando insurance claim attorneys.

Source:

Insurers reject House members’ request to cover uninsured COVID business losses. (2020, March 20). Insurance Journal.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/03/20/561810.htm