Shortly before Thanksgiving, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued an opinion in St. Matthews Church of God & Christ v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., No. A21-0240, 2022 Minn. LEXIS 501 (Minn. Nov. 23, 2022), that, unfortunately for policyholders, concluded that State Farm was not required to pay for repairs to bring exterior masonry up to code following a loss.
Continue Reading Court Holds State Farm Not Required to Pay for Repairs to Bring Exterior Masonry Up to Code Following Loss

The point of this blog is to implore policyholders to buy what is commonly called code upgrade coverage – formally known as law and ordinance coverage. I was thinking about this after reading two different articles discussing very different losses in very different parts of the world.
Continue Reading The Importance of Revising Building Laws and Ordinances, Which Explains Why Law and Ordinance Coverage Law is So Important To Purchase

Business Interruption coverage protects the potential earnings of the insured business while its operations are suspended as a result of damage caused by a covered peril. The period of restoration has a direct effect on the actual loss suffered. A typical definition in most ISO forms of the “period of restoration” is:
Continue Reading Can My Business Recover Additional Income Loss If Code Upgrades Are Delaying the Time to Complete Repairs?

Many residential insurance policies in Florida have additional coverage for “Ordinance or Law” or code upgrade coverage. I wanted to write about this additional coverage in the context of the Hurricane Law series because it is important to understand how this additional coverage kicks in during a typical residential hurricane claim. In South Florida, many property insurance claim issues remain from the 2005 and 2005 hurricanes. Many of the open disputes concern hurricane damage to residential roofs and whether they can be repaired or necessitate replacement. Of course there are many other issues still being litigated from the hurricanes of 2004-2005 in Florida, but this post will focus on the Ordinance or Law additional coverage in the context of a residential roof.

Continue Reading Ordinance or Law–An Additional Coverage Available Under Many Florida Residential Policies