II

Interesting Insurance Stuff - check this claim

Insurance Agent
Insurance Agent

About

How is this for a claim? Our client was a tenant in the building in Jerusalem that was destroyed in a gas explosion a few months ago. The building collapsed partially, and the city declared it a danger area (in other words the building must be razed to the ground and no one is around allowed to enter). Our client can see the contents of his apartment untouched! However, he can’t physically remove his clothes, fridge, stove and all the other parts of his daily life. The question Is this an insurance claim? The actual apartment doesn’t belong to the client but what about his contents? For all intents and purposes, they are “destroyed or lost”, therefore the insurance company should pay up. This seems especially true if the Iriya were to take down the whole building in order to rebuild it. All his belongings would be destroyed. The debate: The insurance company invoking the policy wording claimed that this is secondary damage. In other words, the contents are not actually damaged as the result of a fire, explosion or water damage as covered in the policy. They would be destroyed because of a secondary cause, which is not covered. They told our client to sue the Iriya. The Iriya in turn, passed the ball to the gas company who are the prime cause of the trouble! Result (partial) We are pressurizing the insurance company to pay our client and then have them sue the other parties. This is still under discussion. Additional questions In general, what are the options for a person who owns an apartment in a building? Your own apartment is usually insured for the rebuilding value (which is approximately 6,500 NIS sq. meters) but obviously this isn’t enough to buy a new apartment. For example, let’s say your apartment in Rechavia is 100 sq. meters—the insurance coverage will be 650,000 NIS which is not nearly enough to purchase a similar apartment. What to do? You can add what is called “land value” onto your policy. This means you can add up to four times the value of the poli