Does my Insurance Cover my Loss Due to Coronavirus?

March 18, 2020
Alvarez Law Group

Coronavirus has quickly made a huge impact on the people and businesses in the United States. With the government asking individuals to stay at home and businesses to close early, all types of businesses are being impacted due to COVID-19. Luckily for business owners, their insurance policy may be able to reduce their losses. Typically, insurance policies have provisions that deal with events that cause business interruption. Your insurance policy may include civil authority coverage, which may provide coverage for interruption to your business as a result mandated closures by state and local governments.

Most civil authority coverage provisions state that an insurance company will provide coverage for actual loss of business sustained when an order of civil or military authority prohibits access to the property as a result of physical loss or damage to property. If your policy includes language requiring “physical loss or damage”, insurance companies will likely not provide coverage if there is no damage to property.

However, there are certain policies that do not require physical damage to property. Instead, the policy will provide coverage when, as a result of an order of civil authority, access to the property is denied. Normally, the coverage will start 72 hours after the civil authority order becomes effective and end after three consecutive weeks. This will provide business owners with coverage for the actual loss of business income that they sustained directly because they were denied access to their business. If an order by a civil authority is issued that prohibits business owners from opening their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic, your insurance may provide coverage depending on the specific policy language it contains.

Civil authority coverage is specific to each factual situation and depends on all coverage parts and conditions in the policy. If you believe that your policy may provide civil authority coverage and would like the experienced attorneys at Alvarez Law Group to review your policy, do not hesitate in calling us at (786) 620-2820 or email assistant@alvarez.legalto schedule a consultation.

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