Businesses are hurting due to COVID-19 slow-downs and closures. Here is my top-five list of things to do to protect your right to collect on your business interruption (a/k/a business income) insurance:
5. Don’t Believe the Propaganda. The insurance industry is trying to stop business owners from making claims by repeating the mantra “no insurance available for COVID-19 claims.” That’s just not true. While some businesses have “virus” or “communicable disease” exclusions, we are finding that many of our clients’ policies don’t have that exclusion. (One analysis is that 80% of policies don’t.) And even with that exclusion, hope is not necessarily lost. There are many, many different kinds of business income policies out there—the specific wording of your policy (even very minor differences) will matter. When an insurer tells you that virus contamination isn’t “property damage” remember that most policies are written on an “all-risk” basis, meaning that it is up to the insurer to clearly exclude something as a “cause of loss.” Courts in Oregon, Washington, and elsewhere have found that contamination from smoke, chemical odors, and e coli counts as “physical loss or damage.” Also, most policies contain “civil authority” coverage that overrides any requirement that your property be damaged—meaning that if you lose business due to a “stay-home” or “shelter-in-place” government order, like the one just announced in Oregon, or the Washington restaurant order, you may have coverage. Continue Reading