Condo Media - September 2020 - 17

"Insurers aren't using some [obscure] fine print to deny
coverage they are supposed to provide. They are denying
coverage because they are right; the policies don't provide it."
if denied coverage, may have to pay
defense costs and damage claims out of
pocket. But he is also concerned about
the potential liability of association
managers, insurance agents and attorneys who tell their clients there is no
point in challenging a coverage denial.
"Attorneys, managers, and insurance
brokers aren't coverage experts," he
notes. "They shouldn't give coverage
opinions." Instead, he suggests, they
should advise associations to seek an
opinion from "coverage counsel" - attorneys who specialize in challenging
denial of coverage decisions.
Marcus emphasizes that he is not
talking about "ambulance chasers,"
who will pursue virtually any claim. He
is talking about "coverage specialists"

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with the experience and expertise to assess whether an association has reasonable grounds for challenging a denial.
"If we say it's not worth fighting a
coverage denial and then a few businesses start winning multi-milliondollar awards against their insurers,
our clients are going to start pointing
fingers at us," Marcus says, and rightly
so, he believes.
Pierce thinks it is "not bad advice" for
associations to consider filing a claim,
even if they assume it will be denied.
Having coverage counsel review the denial and the association's insurance policy
"is a perfectly fine option," he agrees.
POLICY PRICING AND INTENT
But at the end of the day, he doesn't

think these COVID-related claims
will be covered, or should be. Standard
policies, he says, were neither written
nor priced to provide that coverage.
"I'm not an insurance carrier - I
don't pay the claims," he says. "I root
for my clients. I'd like to be able to
tell them they have the coverage they
need. But I know insurers aren't using some [obscure] fine print to deny
coverage they are supposed to provide.
They are denying coverage because
they are right; the policies don't provide it."
Meskin agrees. "I know the intense
works that goes into setting rates, and
modeling losses, and I can guarantee
you 105 percent that there was never
any contemplation that these policies
would cover a pandemic-type issue."
It is possible to buy coverage for
contagious diseases, he says, but it
is "extremely expensive, and I don't
know of any condominium association
that would be willing to purchase it."

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September 2020 CONDOMEDIA

Condo Media - September 2020

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