Complexities of Builder's Risk Insurance Claims: Ownership of Policy, Amount and Type of Coverage

Description

Construction projects are subject to accidents and defects that are typically costly and complicated and often result in extended battles over BRI coverage. It is crucial to determine whether there is builders' risk coverage for defective workmanship and who holds that policy--either can affect what type of claim to file.

Many legal issues impact BRI recovery for construction accidents or defects caused by defective workmanship, in part due to no standard form BRI policy, so coverage is sometimes dependent on subtle distinctions in BRI policy terms and language. Therefore, this language needs to be negotiated and reviewed before starting the project.

Counsel representing construction owners, contractors, and insurance companies must understand critical issues such as defective workmanship, accidents, and external causes, the applicability of exclusions such as those for defective workmanship, exceptions to those exclusions, business interruption or soft costs coverage, as well as "other insurance," and priority of coverage arguments. Counsel must address how much coverage to maintain and how to allocate the losses.

Listen as our authoritative panel of construction attorneys analyzes how to determine proper insurance coverage for construction accidents and what language considerations to include for specific provisions. The panel will discuss critical issues that impact potential recovery, including defective workmanship, accidents and external causes, express exclusions for defective workmanship, and the inherent vice and latent defect exclusion.