Coronavirus disease 19 is such a very stressful pandemic that has affected the economy of the whole world in just a few months it was realized. The question still remains as to when the situation will calm down. Businesses are continuing to count losses and a lot of people have lost their jobs. The big question that business people have out there is whether business interruption insurance can cover the companies from the losses that are stemming from this deadly pandemic. It is well understood that this insurance can cover businesses for losses stemming from business interruptions that are related to events such as fire breakouts and electricity outages. The answer is that this will depend on the particulars of your policy. The critical factors here are your insurance policy terms and conditions.
It is good to note that what ends up being a covered business interruption loss is defined by what is excluded as what is included. Insurance providers sometimes put down the policy of their insurance very tightly with some conditions because they want the disruptions they cover to be clearly limited. There are times when the carriers don’t write the language of the policy tightly and this leads to them covering the situations they may have never contemplated. The most important thing is the policy language and the mere occurrence of the interruption of the business does not trigger business interruption coverage. There are some things you need to consider if you are wondering whether you have insurance to cover losses that are linked to a pandemic or if you are preparing a claim. Outlined below are some of the questions you need to think about.
One of the top questions that you need to consider is if you have business interruption insurance as part of a broader insurance policy. There are a lot of business leaders out there who may be not aware that they have a business interruption policy. Such coverage is mostly included as part of a commercial property liability insurance policy. Where an insurance policy provides for business interruption coverage and where there has occurred a possible loss, it is very crucial for the insured to give an official notice of the claim without any delay. If the company does not have an in-premise risk management function, the broker of the insurance who placed the coverage or outside counsel who is knowledgeable about the problems concerning insurance can help.
The second question that you need to ask yourself is whether you are documenting the losses in real-time. It is crucial to make sure you keep your records immediately on how your company has been and is being specifically affected by the epidemic and associated events: whether you shut it down following the order of the government, customers stopped to come, the interruptions of the supply chain, or whether you had to use your money and time to set the work from home capabilities to your workers. You need to be able to document the business interruption loss with precise records because the downturns of a business can be as a result of many aspects.