How the Coronavirus Can Affect Your Insurance Claim By Bobby Parsons / Cohen Law Group
How the Coronavirus Can Affect Your Insurance Claim
By Bobby Parsons / Cohen Law Group
As the Coronavirus continues to spread throughout the globe, many industries will experience closures and slowdowns, as well as implement various protocols limiting their productivity. For instance, the Florida court system has already issued an administrative order limiting court appearances that would require the gathering of a substantial number of people in an effort to curtail further spreading of the virus. The extent of such protocols being put in place during the near-term future remains unclear, but it is safe to assume, the business interruptions we have seen thus far are only the beginning until a vaccine is developed, or the virus runs its natural course.
Many offices are closing their doors for the foreseeable future and requesting employees to work from home. The most recent recommendations from the authorities include a moratorium on gatherings of ten people or more, down from fifty only a few days ago. The spreading of the virus, and the associated efforts to curtail its spread, will certainly impact all aspects of our lives, and suffering a loss to your home or property would only serve to make an impossible situation worse.
Insurance companies are very large, with vast amounts of employees. Should you suffer a loss to your property, an insurance company will likely be ill-equipped at this time to properly adjust your claim due to limitations on its productivity like those discussed above. Normally, an insurance company must conclude its investigation of your claim within ninety days. However, this rule is subject to a provision that allows insurance companies to exceed this timeline during exigent circumstances, like the one we are all dealing with today. What this means, is that your claim could get stuck in limbo while the global issue of the coronavirus runs its course. Scheduling inspections, hiring contractors, gathering documents from your insurance agent, and other steps ordinarily conducted during an insurance company’s investigation into a claim will take much longer than usual.
Given the uncertain nature of the near-term future regarding the ability to properly address your insurance claim, what is a property owner to do should it experience a loss? The most important thing to do in a time like this, is to protect the property from further damage and stabilize it. This could be something as simple as placing a tarp on the roof after suffering a leak. Even though the carrier is likely going to take quite some time to investigate the loss, this does not absolve a property owner of its responsibility to protect the property from further damage. Likewise, a property owner must also preserve the property to the best of its ability for inspection by the insurance company at a later date. Literally maintaining possession of damaged property may be a virtual impossibility due to contaminants or some other risk. However, should this occur, property owners should document such property thoroughly, and consider storing the damaged property with a third party better-equipped to handle such property. As the spread of the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc, it is important to know that an insurance company’s investigation into a property claim is likely to take much longer than normal, and it is equally important to understand how a property owner needs to adapt to the drawn out process.
If you have any questions regarding this, you can call our office 24 hours a day at 407-917-3192.
Robert “Bobby” Parsons, Esq.
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