Category: Real Estate

Pay Attention to Policy Language in a Hardening Insurance Market

Ian Ascher[1] and Jared Zola

The insurance market has proven to be a difficult environment for buyers in 2019. The long tenure of the soft insurance market cycle is changing, and is presenting challenges with pricing, capacity, and sustainability of favorable coverage terms. Coming out of difficult natural catastrophe years in 2017 and 2018, the property insurance market took a sharp turn to protect insurers’ bottom lines. While hardening of the property insurance market was expected, the broader casualty market has taken this opportunity to drive corrective action on their portfolios as well, leaving insurance buyers with little leverage.

How Insurers Are Reacting to the Market Shift

Insurers are approaching the market shift with different strategies, some focused on rate increases, while others are focused on restricting terms, or both. While individual loss experience still plays a role in renewal outcomes, there appears to be more of a portfolio-level push on rate and terms regardless of individual quality of risk factors for any given policyholder. In this environment, stricter control over capacity deployment leads to less competition, which may force the buyer into tough decisions regarding what utility insurance provides for its organization. The guarantee of comprehensive coverage at a fair price becomes harder to balance in a setting where definitively having both is less than certain. Continue reading “Pay Attention to Policy Language in a Hardening Insurance Market”

Hurricane Harvey Insurance Claim Gets Twisted

Jared Zola and Daniel R. Belzil

Almost two years after Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana, Central America, and several Caribbean islands, the coverage issues arising out of it are far from resolved. The court decisions addressing these coverage issues have not all been positive from the insured’s perspective. In particular, one recent decision in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Pan Am Equities, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance Company, No. H-18-2937 (May 2, 2019) (“Pan Am Equities”), should give insureds in Texas and elsewhere pause heading into the 2019 Hurricane Season.

The Dispute—Which Deductible Applies?

The insured in that case owned several commercial properties in Houston, including an apartment building and parking garage that sustained more than $6.7 million in flood damage as a result of Hurricane Harvey. Its properties were insured by a commercial property insurance policy that provided “Flood” coverages as well as coverages for loss caused by the peril of “Windstorm and Hail.” Continue reading “Hurricane Harvey Insurance Claim Gets Twisted”

What Real Estate Developers Need to Know About Insurance Coverage

Charrise L. Alexander

As the economy across the United States continues its slow improvement, many cities across the nation are experiencing a boom in real estate development. From residential to public transit to public works, developers are bidding on and undertaking large projects. Before beginning any new project, it is important that a developer understands the extent of its insurance coverage and ensures that it has adequate insurance to address the particularly unique circumstances involved with real estate development.

While most developers have a commercial general liability policy, such liability policies, even though broad in scope, may not fully protect a developer against all of the risks it may face during development. For example, commercial general liability policies respond to claims involving bodily injury and property damage to third parties, but often do not provide coverage for damage to the developer’s own property. Continue reading “What Real Estate Developers Need to Know About Insurance Coverage”

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