Any insurance claim must start with a specific review of your policy. Nevertheless, the following items may be of particular interest in business interruption claims associated with Hurricane Sandy:
- Check your policy for whether you have coverage for storm-related flooding. Many policies contain an exclusion for floods, unless you purchased a specific flood insurance policy.
- In order to obtain a business interruption claim, many policies require a physical loss, and not just an interruption from customers or suppliers. To obtain expanded coverage, you will need a policy that includes “contingent” business interruption coverage.
- You may have limited coverage associated with evacuation or closure of access to a damage area by civil authorities. Physical damage to your property is not required for this type of claim, although the governmental action will likely need to have occurred from the type of event that is covered by your policy.
If you do not have coverage for flood losses, but you have coverage for other events (such as wind and water), you should attempt to describe the loss that would provide coverage. However, an anti-concurrent causation clause may prevent coverage. An anti-concurrent causation clause states that, if a loss could be considered as caused by two different events, the excluded event overrides the covered event, thus denying coverage.
See this article for recommendations in filing a business interruption claim.
