Matching

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Last year in one of my blogposts, I wrote about Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company,1 and the issue whether appraisal is appropriate to resolve a dispute over the cost of repairing physically undamaged siding of townhome buildings to remedy a mismatch with repaired damaged siding. There, a federal district court in Illinois denied the Association’s motion to compel appraisal on the “matching” issue, reasoning it was a question of coverage, not loss amount, and thus inappropriate for appraisal. This coverage issue was subsequently resolved in favor of the Association, the district court concluding that Philadelphia must replace or pay to replace the siding on all four of the townhome buildings’ elevations if no siding is available that matches the undamaged siding on the north and east elevations, as claimed by the Association.2…
Continue Reading The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Weighs In On “Matching”

The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals in Noonan v. American Family Mutual Insurance,1 recently upheld that the Minnesota Amendatory Homeowners Endorsement (“Endorsement”) excludes “matching.” The Endorsement provides that an insurer does “not pay to repair or replace undamaged property due to mismatch between damaged material and new material used to repair or replace damaged material.”…
Continue Reading Matching Endorsement Upheld as Modifying Policy to Exclude Coverage for Undamaged Material

Last year in one of my blogposts, I wrote about Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, and the issue whether appraisal is appropriate to resolve a dispute over the cost of repairing physically undamaged siding of townhome buildings to remedy a mismatch with repaired damaged siding. There, a federal district court in Illinois denied the Association’s motion to compel appraisal on the “matching” issue, reasoning it was a question of coverage, not loss amount, and inappropriate for appraisal.1…
Continue Reading Is a “Matching” Dispute Appropriate for Appraisal? – Update

We received a request for a blog related to decisions on roof matching under homeowner’s policies of insurance. In 1997 the Insurance Commissioner’s Office of Montana took a position on roof matching under the contractual duty to make a policyholder “whole” again, and the query was whether Montana had case law or statutory provisions at this time that codifies that practice.…
Continue Reading Roof Matching in Montana

In 1990, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted a new section to its model regulations relating to unfair property claims.1

Section 9 of the model regulation provides:2

A. When the policy provides for the adjustment and settlement of first-party losses based on replacement cost, the following shall apply:

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(2) When a loss requires replacement of items and the replaced items do not match in quality, color or size, the insurer shall replace all such items in the area so as to conform to a reasonably uniform appearance. This applies to interior and exterior losses. The insured shall not bear any cost over the applicable deductible, if any.…
Continue Reading Matching Protections for Hurricane Irma Claims in Florida

Policyholders purchase property insurance and pay lofty premiums with the intention of their insured property being restored to where it was prior to a loss. But what happens when the loss affects only a portion of the siding or has destroyed only a handful of discontinued roofing tiles? Is the policyholder forced to accept mismatching materials? The trial court in Hamlet Condominium Association v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company, recently entered an order1 which discussed an insurer’s obligation under a replacement cost value policy to provide a reasonable match between the replacement and existing materials.…
Continue Reading An Insurer’s Obligation to Match: Comparable Materials and Quality

The appraisal clause in a typical residential and commercial property insurance policy provides for an appraisal if the parties disagree as to “the amount of loss.”1 That phrase has been the subject of extensive legal debate between insureds and insurers in terms of its meaning and scope. While most courts have concluded that ascertaining the amount of loss does not include interpreting the policy or making coverage determinations, little guidance has been provided as to what coverage means and whether an appraisal can still proceed even if coverage issues exist.…
Continue Reading The Scope of Appraisal in Illinois

In my last blog post, I discussed Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company,1 and the issue whether appraisal is appropriate to resolve a dispute over the need for a general contractor to perform repairs following a covered loss. Windridge of Naperville also involved whether appraisal is appropriate to resolve a dispute over the cost of repairing physically undamaged sides of townhome buildings to remedy a mismatch with repaired damaged sides.…
Continue Reading Is a “Matching” Dispute Appropriate for Appraisal?