Multi-Family/Apartments
After a catastrophic loss occurs to multi-family apartment buildings and condos, the owner’s immediate impulse is to take action. This natural impulse prompts the owner to take the necessary steps to mitigate his or her losses and quickly resume regular operations.
Unfortunately, the settlement of many commercial insurance claims is a complex transaction. The multi-family apartment building and condo owner must view claims settlement as such, using all the professional assistance and diligence available when negotiating this important business contract. To accept an insurance company’s freelance insurance adjuster’s opinion of the claim’s value or to blindly accept the offer of settlement from the insurer may be an unnecessarily costly decision.
Review Commercial Insurance Policies with Care
For many reasons, it’s essential for the insured to independently investigate the damages of the multi-family apartment buildings and condos and carefully review any insurance policy for available coverage. Failure to do so can result in a settlement that’s much less than the insured owner bargained for.
Taking these steps may be easier said than done for most property owners. Self-investigation of the damages requires expert assistance. Reviewing the commercial insurance policy’s language requires specialized legal skills.
If your multi-family apartment buildings or condos are damaged as a result of hurricane, wind, tornado, or another natural disaster, reach out to an experienced first party insurance claims law firm as soon as possible. This step can save the owner-insured time, money, and stress from interactions with a bad faith insurance carrier.
What Coverage Should I Expect in a Commercial Property Insurance Policy?
A typical commercial property policy may cover:
- Property damage, including multi-family apartment buildings and condos structures, fixtures, inventory, machines, raw materials, and furnishings
- Business interruption coverage, intended to put the insured in the position it might have attained if the loss causing the interruption of business hadn’t occurred. Business interruption coverage may provide necessary funds to keep the business running during a period of suspended operations (because of the damage caused by a covered event or peril). In many instances, business interruption coverage pays out the business’s continued operating experiences (such as payroll) and profit for a specified time period.
- Extra expenses, or those expenses incurred in the mitigation of increased costs after a catastrophe or mitigating the business loss. This coverage may reimburse the insured for money spent to move the administrative offices to another location while the multifamily apartment building or condo complex is restored. Some policies, but not all, cover equipment breakdown.
- Loss of rents covers lost income when the multifamily apartment building rental property is rendered uninhabitable by the covered event if renters don’t have a contractual obligation to continue making rental payments.
The insured should evaluate coverage after a covered event. The commercial insurance policy may include contingent business interruption;ordinary payroll coverage;extended period of indemnity;civil authority coverage;loss of ingress/egress; and utility services coverage.
Unless you’ve thoroughly reviewed all available insurance policies, it’s difficult to know what the commercial insurer is promising in the contract. A skilled commercial insurance dispute attorney will carefully review the contract language right away.
Sadly, not all insurance companies keep their end of the contract after the insured submits a property damage claim. If your commercial insurance company stalls, delays, underpays, or denies your valid multi-family property or condo claim, you need an experienced commercial claims attorney at your side immediately.
Multi-Family Properties, Condominium Complexes, and Tenant Obligations
The owner of an apartment building or condo complex is obligated to his or her tenants. Property damages resulting from a major disaster can be exceptionally costly. In addition to repairing the damages of the property to ensure the safety of tenants, you will also want to mitigate your losses as soon as possible.
Mindiola Law Firm’s skilled property dispute attorneys represent owners of multi-family buildings, apartments, condos, and others. We work to get your commercial insurance claims paid fast—it’s our mutual goal to minimize the potential disruption of tenants and staff in the aftermath of a major disaster. If your commercial insurance company isn’t providing what you’re entitled to after you file a valid first party insurance claim, call us at . We’re standing by to help now.