Insurance question

Sadly, floors are a major area of dispute among insurance companies. This happened in my building when a common air conditioning condenser pipe burst and ruined the floors in one unit.

The co-op ByLaws are clear. Co-op is responsible for the original floors, but never responsible for refinishing floors. It's spelled out plain as day in the Lease. Yet, the unit owner's insurance carrier insisted it was the co-op's responsibility and denied the claim.

In the end, the co-op board voted to pay for the floor refinishing just to avoid a potential lawsuit. We could have appealed it up to the State Insurance Commissioner, but ultimately decided it was not worth the time or effort since the floor refinishing cost was $2,000 and the problem that caused the mess was the co-op's fault.

I have some ties to the insurance industry, and confidentally, reps have told me that most of the major HO-6 carriers will deny everything.

Hello. I can help and have experience dealing with water losses, both as a long time insurance broker, claims adjuster, insurance exec, and contractor billing insurance companies. The truth is water is, by far, the most common cause of loss in an NYC coop/condo/townhome/home. In almost all scenarios, the water not only effects the owners property but usually also the neighbors properties. Water claims are inherently complex for a few reasons: 1) Is it a coverage claim and 2) Who should pay? Regarding 1), most insurance companies restrict what will be coverage and how much they would be willing to pay out. So I agree with Lad above with his comments that most insurance companies will deny water claims depending on the cause of loss. That said, there are a couple of insurance companies in NYC that will treat water losses well. One of those companies is Chubb. Regarding 2) There are usually at least 3 insurance companies involved: the property owner, the neighbor(s), and the coop or condo master policies. The three (or more) companies usually try to hammer it out to figure out who pays what, which can be stressful to say the least. Some insurers, like Chubb, will make your life a lot easier with these scenarios vs others and will try to make you whole first before trying to collect from the other policies that could be involved. In my experience, the coop/condo master policies often time short change on the unit owner claims (if even covered), which is why it is important to know how your actual policy will perform in these scenarios. Happy to have a discussion.

My company info is below.

Best wishes,
Seth
Prana Risk
www.prana-risk.com
info@prana-risk.com
917-438-0984