What is a Business Damage Claim?
Civil unrest can result in property damage, vandalism and stolen or damaged goods. As business owners work to protect or repair their buildings, property insurance may cover costs associated with protection and preservation of property, business interruption and property damage. This is where filing a business damage claim or business interruption claim may help cover your costs.
Protection and Preservation of Property: What It Means For Your Business Damage Claim
Policies may include language that allows for reimbursement for reasonable and necessary costs for actions to temporarily protect or preserve the covered property. Generally, these actions will be evaluated by the insurance company to see if they are reasonable and necessary and in response to actual or imminent physical loss or damage from a covered cause of loss.
This may include the cost of supplies and labor to board up windows and doors or make other adjustments to the property to temporarily protect or preserve it.
Not all forms include coverage for protection and preservation of property. Manuscript policies are more likely to include these provisions than most standard package policies. We suggest reviewing your policy with your broker to evaluate the extent of potential coverage.
Should You File a Business Damage Claim or a Business Interruption Claim?
Even if your business does not suffer direct physical loss or damage, a protection and preservation of property clause may provide business interruption coverage losses incurred due to reasonable action being taken to temporarily protect and preserve the insured property. Frequently, this coverage is separate from the property damage expenses incurred to temporarily protect or preserve the insured property.
The policy may also respond to business interruption losses suffered due to an order of civil authority that prohibits access to a business and impairs operations. Frequently, the order must be the direct result of physical damage, of the type insured, which occurred at your location or within a stipulated distance from your location.
Generally, property policies consider all loss or damage from the same “occurrence” within the scope of one claim, regardless of the number of locations involved. As such, there is one limit available, but only one deductible applied. We suggest carefully reviewing your policy to determine how an “occurrence” is defined.
Other policies provide a specific time window that defines the occurrence, for example, 72 hours. If riots or damage occurs in waves over multiple days, there may be multiple occurrences. Depending on the policy language, an insured may be able to select when the 72 hour time period begins. We recommend a close review of your policy, as some deductibles apply on a “per location” basis, where a deductible is applied at each location involved rather than all properties involved in the “occurrence.”
The facts of each individual loss and policy wording will determine the ultimate outcome.
SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION
DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT, HEAR FROM OUR CLIENTS
I recommend Public Loss Adjusters without hesitation! I finally hired them after being overpowered by the insurance company. I couldn’t take their insistence in declining to pay fairly. They secured the settlement and we got their asking price.
~Beverly M.
Es una compañia con mucho carácter profesional. Ellos manejaron todo con la aseguradora con su conocimiento mucho mejor a que si lo hubiese hecho solo. Tengo mi dinero y me sobro. Ninguna queja. Gracias PLA!
~Marco V.
We are so relieved we chose PLA. Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought I had a chance against the insurance company. I gave in and tried. The insurance company caved in and granted us the amount PLA demanded.
~Robert T.
Get a Free Claim Review
Tell us what happened and a licensed public adjuster will review your claim — no cost, no obligation. We only get paid when you do.
Florida property insurance claims: the deadlines and the fee cap
- Notice of a claim
- Under Fla. Stat. §627.70132, a property insurance claim or reopened claim is barred unless notice was given to the insurer within 1 year after the date of loss. A supplemental claim is barred unless notice was given within 18 months after the date of loss. — Fla. Stat. §627.70132(2)
- Time to bring a court action
- An action for breach of a property insurance contract must be brought within 5 years, running from the date of loss. This is a separate clock from the notice deadline, and §627.70132(5) states that the notice statute does not affect it. — Fla. Stat. §95.11(2)(e)
- What a public adjuster may charge
- A public adjuster’s compensation is capped at 20 percent of the amount of insurance claim payments or settlements, exclusive of attorney fees and costs, paid to the insured by the insurer. For claims based on events that are the subject of a declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor the cap is 10 percent, and that limit applies to claims made during the year after the declaration of emergency. — Fla. Stat. §626.854(11)(b)
- Which deadline applies to you
- Which of these applies to your claim depends on your policy and your date of loss.
Public Loss Adjusters, LLC — Robert Mack, Florida public adjuster, Lic. #A161638. The review is free and carries no obligation. Call 352-353-4556.
If it would help to talk it through with someone local, see public adjusters in Central Florida.