Commercial & Association Claims

The insurance company has their specialists. So should you.

Commercial property, condominium and homeowners associations, storefronts, golf courses, and business interruption. Large limits, layered exclusions, and provisions that have to be read closely. The insurance company puts a large-loss adjuster on your claim and brings in engineers and forensic accountants behind them. You should be equipped the same way — your own large-loss adjuster, and the engineer or the accountant brought in when your claim calls for one.

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Claims Handled

Homeowners Associations Multifamily Condominium Associations Golf Courses Commercial Property Business Interruption

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How a commercial policy is put together

The coverage form says what’s insured

CP 00 10 — Building and Personal Property

The workhorse, and what I see on most business policies. The building, your business personal property, and personal property of others in your care.

CP 00 17 — Condominium Association

The same structure as CP 00 10, worded for an association: the buildings and the personal property the association owns. A condominium association is usually written on its own version of the form.

CP 00 18 — Condominium Commercial Unit-Owners

The commercial unit owner’s side of that same line. Where the association’s form stops, this one generally starts.

CP 00 30 and CP 00 32 — Business Income

The income side, and a separate form from the building. CP 00 30 includes extra expense, CP 00 32 doesn’t. Business interruption

CP 00 20 — Builders Risk

A building under construction or renovation. Materials, labor and the work in place rather than a finished, occupied building.

Business Owners Policy — BOP

A BOP bundles the coverage form and the causes of loss into one document, so there aren’t two numbers to look up. Common on smaller commercial.

The causes of loss form says what’s covered

This is the separate document, and it’s the one people don’t know they have. The coverage form can be identical on two policies and the claim still comes out differently because of this one.

CP 10 30 — Special

The broad one, and what most people assume they have. Damage is generally covered unless the form excludes it.

CP 10 20 — Broad

Named perils, on a longer list. If the cause of your loss isn’t on the list, it generally isn’t covered however bad the damage is.

CP 10 10 — Basic

Named perils, on a short list. The narrowest of the three.

These are the most common policies, not the only ones, and plenty of Florida policies are written on a carrier’s own form rather than an ISO one. Check your declarations page, and if you’re not sure what you’re looking at, call me and we’ll go through it.

Two time limitations on every loss, one yours and one the carrier’s

Your clock

One year to give notice. Eighteen months to supplement. The statute isn’t residential only. §627.70132
A sworn proof of loss, generally within 60 days. Most policies start the clock when the carrier requests it. Some policies start the clock from the date of loss, which means it can be running before anybody asks you for anything. Every policy is different, review yours to confirm which clock it is.
Unit owners have a separate rule, and it can run 90 days from the board’s vote to levy the assessment. §627.714
Reopening a closed claim runs on the same one-year clock. §627.70132

Their clock

The acknowledgment, inspection and estimate duties carry no commercial carve-out. §627.70131
Seven days for the carrier to acknowledge a communication. §627.70131
Thirty days to physically inspect after the proof of loss. §627.70131
The 60-day pay-or-deny duty is narrower, and the limit is size — an insured structure of 10,000 square feet or less. §627.70131
An association sits inside the 60-day rule, and so does a smaller commercial building. A large one doesn’t. §627.70131
Late payment earns interest from the date the insurer received notice, not from day sixty-one. Your policy can’t waive it. §627.70131

For boards and property managers: one voice to the carrier, and a record the membership can read

The association is the policyholder and the board acts for it. Put the authorization in a resolution and into the minutes. That record is what answers questions two years from now.
One scope goes to the carrier. Nothing costs an association more than two documents from its own side that disagree.
The documentation protects you too. A fully documented claim shows the membership that the board acted diligently, took advice, and can account for every decision it made about their money.
Reserves aren’t a repair budget. Every dollar that doesn’t come from the claim comes from reserves or from a special assessment, and members feel that directly.
Bring me in before you agree to anything. A scope, an engineer’s report and a first offer all become harder to move once a board has signed off on them.

What to look for in your policy

Your deductible, and whether it’s a flat amount or a percentage of the limit.
Coinsurance, and the figure the penalty is measured against.
Whether an agreed value provision is in force this policy period.
Ordinance and law coverage, if you have it and its limit.
The sublimits. Debris removal, signs, outdoor property, trees and landscaping, pool and deck equipment, water damage.
Business income and extra expense limits, and the period of restoration. Business interruption.
Any protective safeguards endorsement requiring an alarm or sprinkler system.
The vacancy provision on the commercial form.
Who is named as insured, including the management entity where that applies.
For an association, the declaration alongside the policy.
Yearly renewals often change coverages in previous policies. Review all endorsement changes yearly.

After an association or commercial loss: Dos and Don’ts

Dos

Put the board’s authorization in a resolution and into the minutes. That record is what answers questions two years from now.
Send one scope to the carrier. Not one from management and another from a vendor.
Prepare the assessment on day one. Deductible, code upgrade, any shortfall in the limits, professional fees.

Don’ts

Don’t let a stale appraisal sit. That’s where a coinsurance problem hides until the claim arrives.
Don’t close a small loss with a broad release. Wording that closes every claim from that event also closes the damage you haven’t found yet.
Don’t release the flood claim to settle the wind claim. Separate policies, separate proof, separate schedules.
Don’t hand over originals. Records, invoices, policies and minutes go to the carrier as copies.
Don’t give a number you can’t support. An estimate has to survive being read line by line.

This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.

These are the ones specific to this kind of loss. Select the link for the Dos and Don’ts that apply to every claim.

The call that matters

Call or email me before the board or the company agrees to anything. It’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, and I’ll tell you what the provisions actually do to your claim.

I can also meet with the full board before I’m retained, walk through the engagement and answer questions, so nobody votes on something they haven’t had explained to them.

You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.

Call 561-281-6990 Email brian@thepeoplesadjuster.com