This article discusses strata insurance claim after cancellation and whether past incidents are covered under occurrence or claims-made policies.
Question: If a strata company cancels its insurance in March 2016, can it still lodge a claim against that policy if legal action is commenced within the statute of limitations for something that occurred prior to March 2016?
Answer: There may be no limitation on how far back you can lodge a claim
It does solely depend on the policy terms and conditions. If the policy in 2016 was an occurrence policy wording, and it covers events that occurred during the policy period, then there’s no limitation on how far back you can lodge a claim. As an example, if you have a public liability incident where someone has slipped and fallen over in 2016, and they’ve had some complications five years later, and they decide to sue the Owners Corporation, the policy enforced at the time would be the policy that you seek to take cover for.
There are other sections within a strata policy, which is a claims made policy. A good example of a claims made policy is the office bearers liability section, and the legal defence expenses section. Those sections say that if you had a claim in 2016, the policy enforced today, the day of notification is the policy that responds.
You’d need to seek advice from your broker or advisor on which policy to specifically look for. Just be mindful that if you’re looking at the claims made policy, so today’s policy, you may have some disclosure issues if you fail to disclose a 2016 incident that you were aware of.
This post appears in Strata News #481.
Tyrone Shandiman Strata Insurance Solutions E: tshandiman@iaa.net.au P: 1300 554 165
This information is of a general nature only and neither represents nor is intended to be personal advice on any particular matter. Shandit Pty Ltd T/as Strata Insurance Solutions strongly suggests that no person should act specifically on the basis of the information in this document, but should obtain appropriate professional advice based on their own personal circumstances. Shandit Pty Ltd T/As Strata Insurance Solutions is a Corporate Authorised Representative (No. 404246) of Insurance Advisenent Australia AFSL No 240549, ABN 15 003 886 687.